


Weight of Life

by nekojita



Series: Immortals [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, BAMF Mikasa, Emotional Constipation, Eren's not too bad either, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Plotbunnies, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Swearing, Threesome - M/M/M, Vampires, eren is so not a virgin, nicknames for everyone!, not quite everyone, other pairings to follow, songs for chapter titles, vampire eren, vampire mikasa, will add more tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-02-05 23:35:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 337,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1836292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nekojita/pseuds/nekojita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a future world ravaged by man's folly, humanity is reduced to living in environmental domes for their safety. Yet even then, they're plagued by monstrous Malforms, creatures who hunt them for their blood. Levi Ackerman is tasked with keeping the domes safe, and one day comes across a mysterious teenager who stands out from the crowd.</p>
<p>Bah, basically this is my attempt to meld vampires, SnK, and AU all together and make it semi-logical. Read a few SnK vampire fics and wondered why it was almost always Levi who was the vampire.... Rating to change in future chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Artifice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE - I'm going through and fixing a few things as I get ready to post the first chapter of the sequel fic, Untraveled Roads. You'll probably see an update or two in upcoming days before the new chapter gets posted.  
> *******

His back against one of the stone buildings lining the open market, Levi checked his gauntlet, pushing up the left sleeve of his dark grey jacket so he could examine the fine silver metal exoskeleton wrapped around his left wrist and forearm. Everything looked all right, felt to be fine, and flexing his wrist prepped a dart for rappelling walls. Satisfied that that his gear was working, he relaxed his wrist and pulled the sleeve back down, giving it a tug so that it matched the right and brushed off a fleck of dust from his right glove. All around him, people bustled about with their asinine lives, babbling gibberish about prices and bargains while they drifted around various tables topped with useless crap.

Speaking of babbling….

“- and Erwin said that Pixis will let us join in if he finds the tunnels, he swears that he’s getting closer to locating them. I know of several historical cities in the past that are supposed to have undergrounds, so it just-“

He tuned out Hange and her familiar jabbering; years of partnering together made it a skill he could turn on and off at will. He continued with his uniform check and moved onto the long blades sheathed at his hips, bored out of his mind and needing something to stay focused, as Erwin had put the two of them on duty far away from anywhere important. Shitty bastard must still be holding a grudge over the whole Maria affair….

“Oh, looks like someone hates the MPs as much as we do.”

In the process of wiping off the bit of mud that was defiling his grey boots, Levi looked up to see what it was that his mentally unbalanced partner was cooing about *now*. The egotistical bastards in their MP uniforms were easy to spot, thanks to their black jackets with the green and white horned horses emblazoned upon the back. Really, who wanted a mutated freak as a symbol when they had enough of a problem with Malforms, but that was the MP for you. Right now, two of the shitstains’ finest were hassling some poor kid, which was nothing new. What was surprising was that the brat had the balls to stand up to them. Balls, but not brains.

The brat’s back was to Levi, but from the little he could tell, there wasn’t anything special about him; he didn’t look like he could take on the two MP by himself, he wasn’t dressed in any fancy clothes, just brown pants and a matching laced up jerkin. If anything, he was dressed rather light for the cooler temps inside of the Trost dome – his companions were wearing jackets and one of them even a red scarf. The girl, with shoulder length black hair and her face obscured by the scarf, had enough sense to pull him away from the MP while the other boy, with blond hair in a similar cut, made appeasing motions in what was an obvious attempt to apologize for his friend. Whatever he was doing, it must have worked as the MPs let the three of them go. As they hurried away, Levi caught a glance of the troublemaker’s face.

Despite the fact that everyone was locked up under a dome, the brat’s skin was tan, lacking the normal pallor he was used to seeing. It only made the brat’s eyes appear all that more unusual, that much more brighter, an arresting golden color that drew Levi in the few seconds that the boy looked in his direction. Then the girl pulled the brown-haired brat into the crowd in what was probably an attempt to lose the MPs and Levi no longer saw him, despite the fact that he was skilled in tracking people.

He pushed away from the wall he was leaning against in an attempt to follow the unusual threesome a little longer, but dammit, somehow they really had vanished. There was no sign of the troublemaker, no sign of that bright blond hair, no red scarf. Who the hell were those kids?

“Levi?”

“What?” He turned to find Hange staring at him in shock, her mouth opened wide and an odd gleam in her dark brown eyes behind the lenses of her glasses. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as she soon squealed in glee.

“Aw, what is it? Did you find something interesting? Was it one of those kids? I *told* you Trost would be good for us!” She dared to lunge forward and hug him, her gauntlet thumping hard into his back. “It’s always fun in a main dome!”

“Hange, I swear that if you don’t let me go, I will *gut* you and leave you for Malforms to feast upon,” he gritted out between clenched teeth, well aware that people were staring at them.

Of course the insane idiot ignored him. “I’m willing to risk it,” she answered in a blithe manner as she dragged him away from the wall and into the crowd. “Now, we have to meet up with Erwin, but you can tell me what had you so distracted along the way. Was it the girl? One of the boys? Both of the boys? Levi, you kinky bastard, I bet it was both of the boys!” she squealed in delight, uncaring about who overheard.

He was seriously going to string her up and leave her out as Malform bait.

*******

One of the few good things about a scheming bastard like Erwin Smith was that he took one look at the swollen lip on Hange’s (idiotically) grinning face, glanced at Levi, and then decided to ignore the whole situation. Bastard definitely knew when to pick his battles, and after deciding to pair Levi with such an insane partner, he’d been doing a hell of a lot of ignoring ever since. Oh all right, the shitty glasses was decent in a fight when she wasn’t screaming at Levi to leave her some sort of sample she could haul back to their base, and she put up with him. Wasn’t much to say about that last bit. Still, she should know better about which lines could be crossed by now, except Hange apparently lived in a line-free world. At least she didn’t give a shit when he beat her down for his own fucked-up issues.

Erwin motioned for them to sit down and then did that annoying throat-clearing shit of his. Just when Levi took to glaring, he began to speak. “Run across any Malforms today?”

Levi spoke up before his partner could start ranting. “No. It’s been annoyingly quiet.” Not that he looked forward to risking his own life and those of his squad, but he was going to go crazy if he continued to hold up walls for much longer.

Of course Hange had to go all scientific, bouncing in her seat all the while and even tugging on her ponytail for added emphasis with her left hand. “It’s not normal, things being this calm. You have over a hundred thousand people beneath the Trost dome, one of the biggest and most elite out there, and it can’t open for another nine months. There’s usually at least a hundred Malforms in a population this size, despite our best efforts to keep them out, and considering that the dome has been closed for a month, we should have seen at least ten by now if we consider the law of averages. Something is going on here.”

Erwin folded his hands beneath his chin and nodded, his blond, slicked back hair shining in the dim light of the small, sparse office and in contrast to the grey of his jacket. “Yes, I agree with you, and the fact that we’ve only come across one of them so far is very worrisome. I’m not so much troubled that we’ve been given a contract to protect Trost and seem to have done little to support our pay as am wondering why we’ve done so little work. For the past several centuries, their actions have been… almost dependable. I don’t like the idea that they’re changing.”

For a moment Levi was lost in memories of comrades screaming in pain, the scent of blood and sweat, of inhuman shrieks. His fists clenched at the anger that washed through him at the thought of so much senseless loss and suffering. “Those fuckers aren’t changing, all that matters to them then and now is tearing us apart and feeding,” he spat out. “Don’t even try to tell me that they’ve developed some sort of brain.”

Erwin stared at him as if startled while Hange leaned forward, her hands now clasped in front of her. “They do seem to be some sort of mutated human life form, perhaps they maintain-“

“They’re reanimated *corpses*, thanks to a shitload of fucking radiation. You, the expert on this shit, are telling me a corpse can have a fucking working brain-cell to rub together?” Levi turned his glare her way, in no mood for one of her fucked up theories.

Hange appeared tired all of a sudden, her usual vigor vanished as she sunk back into the torture racks that Erwin kept as chairs in the shitty closet that he called an office. “… no. Nothing I’ve found to verify that, at least. But I’ve had a very limited sample pool thanks to the fact that they tend to liquefy if you sever their heads.” It was her turn to glare. “Which a certain someone has a nasty habit of doing.”

“For which I’m grateful,” Erwin muttered as he reached into a drawer of his desk for something. After a few seconds, he pulled out a bottle of whisky and three glasses. “I have Mike out sniffing around to see what he can find out. I’d appreciate it if the two of you can keep your eyes open as well.” He poured each of them a rather generous glass of liquor and handed them out, his blue eyes free of guile; Levi didn’t trust the act one bit as Erwin was one hell of an actor, but he trusted *Erwin* when it came down to it.

“What brought this on,” he asked as he held the glass to his lips, as his commander wasn’t usually so free with the good stuff.

Erwin scowled at his desk for a few seconds before shaking his head. “Nile Dok was questioning our contract since he feels we’ve done so little in the past month, but Pixis stepped in to defend us. Not as if there’s much he can do while the dome is sealed.” He shook his head again as if to clear it of bad thoughts and smiled. “To the Wings of Freedom,” he said while holding up his glass.

For the first time in what felt to be forever, Levi smiled as he echoed the toast, his sight going to the emblem on Erwin’s right sleeve, the same that was emblazoned on his own grey jacket; the white and black wings. The Freedom Corp was the best of the best, the toughest, the craziest and the most suicidal; they kept the domes free of Malforms. You had to be crazy when being sealed inside life-supporting terra-domes while solar flares raged on meant that you were basically limited to medieval-level warfare techniques.

He tossed back the whisky, and the liquor was a pleasant burn down his throat. Erwin held up the bottle for another shot; Levi shrugged and offered up his glass while Hange prattled on about radiation, mutations and why the entire squad was a bunch of pussies for not wanting to bring back an adequate sample base for her to fuck around with and get her jollies off on instead of finding a decent vibrator or something.

As disturbing as that thought was, it was better than him thinking about a pair of eyes the exact color of light striking through priceless, pure honey as it poured down. He’d stolen some of that rare treat once when he’d been young, and as he sat there with his friends, he could still recall the taste of something that usually only the most elite could enjoy. What did it mean to come across someone with eyes that shone so bright in this dull, bland world?

*******

“-having Moblit go through and compile the data from all of our records on Malform kills in the past five years. I know the general theory is that they only hunt at night, which is utter bullshit; I don’t know why people are so stupid, you’d think the first time they get killed in what passes as daylight inside a dome that they would know better, but it’s like an ingrained herd mentality-“

Levi rubbed his temples and wished there was a way to gag Hange that wouldn’t involve so much effort; once she got off on a scientific tangent, you were doomed to blathering nonsense until she was distracted by something or ran out of energy. He’d tried running away in the past, but thanks to the shitty fact that her legs were longer than his, *fucking hell he wasn’t bitter about that, fuck it all no damn it*, she just chased after him spouting the damn verbal diarrhea the entire time at the top of her lungs. Which were impressive as fuck after years of combat and rappelling training. If there was a god, that fact alone was proof it hated Levi. There were days he seriously considered taking out his own ear drums for some peace and quiet, but that bastard Erwin would probably just pay for the cyber implants and give him enhanced hearing as punishment. *Bastard.* Even more proof this so-called god hated Levi’s guts.

As a last resort, he looked up to her and frowned. “So you think you can predict when they might attack?”

The unexpected question actually caused Hange to pause in her long-winded explanation for at least a minute, and then she smiled as if she had been given control of an entire dome. “Yes! At least, I think we can establish enough of a pattern to anticipate when they might, and base our patrol rotations on the data.” She looked as if she was about to rattle off some more scientific nonsense, but they had reached their destination.

While Trost was one of the older, more established domes and had the privileged sections to prove it, along with a renowned university, there were still plenty of shops and markets that catered to the less fortunate segments that supported the upper class. Hange had made certain to work into their rotation several of the consignment shops that might offer up the possibility of any books, a rare item in these days of digital content.

Upon coming across the Zeramuski Family Pawn Shop, Hange burst through the door, swinging it open with such force that it smacked into the wall behind it. “Hi Milius! I’ve money for you!”

The young man with blond hair sitting behind the dark wooden counter looked up from the ledger he was marking and made a gulping sound, his face appearing flushed. Levi closed the door behind him and leaned against the counter, the fingers of his right hand stroking along the smooth, cool metal of his gauntlet.

“Ah, Ms. Hange, uhm….” The kid appeared all the more flustered the longer he stared at Hange, who looked at him expectantly. Levi noticed that the shelf above his head that had contained several rare books that Hange had been interested in was now empty.

“Oi, Shitty Glasses, I don’t think he has the books for you anymore,” he told his partner, hoping to hurry things along so he could get back to work.

The crest-fallen look on her face was almost comical, if it didn’t mean he wouldn’t be hearing about this for the next several days. “What? What do you mean ‘no more books’?” She turned from him to look at the kid, whose face was a bright red. “What happened to my books?” she wailed as she thumped her gloved hands against the counter.

The kid flinched and wrung his own hands together, his bright red skin in contrast to his blond hair and blue shirt. “Well… uhm… see… Dad was working with me the other day, and… uhm, these kids came in and… ah, paid for the books.” He flinched as Hange wailed even louder. “I’m… I’m sorry, but they had the money then!”

Considering how much Hange had been saving up for the stupid books, Levi was a bit curious now; he shouldered his partner aside and leaned over the counter to glare at the flustered kid. “Who bought them?” How many book obsessed idiots could there be in this dome?

Hange bumped into him and nodded frantically. “Yes! Maybe I can buy them back!”

The kid gulped again as he took a nervous step backwards. “Ah, well, there were three of them. The one wanting the books had blond hair and blue eyes… I think his name was Ar… Arwin or something?” His brow furrowed as if he was trying to remember. “There was a dark-haired girl who wore a scarf who was with him, she was really pretty but scary. And a guy who had these big eyes….”

Levi’s left wrist flexed and unflexed at the mention of the honey-eyed brat; what were the chances that he’d run across the kid again, even in passing like this? Why would three teenagers like that want a bunch of rare books? How the hell could they afford them when Hange had saved up several weeks of pay?

Something must have showed on his face as the kid made a choking sound and shuffled back even farther from the counter. Hange finally stopped with the sobbing to thank him for the information and then grabbed hold of Levi’s left arm so she could pull him out of the shop.

“What the fuck is up with those damn kids? First they fuck with the MPs and then they buy your books?” Levi wanted to track them down so he could smack some sense into them. It had nothing to do whatsoever so he could find out what was going on in a certain brat’s head – which he suspected of being next to nothing.

Hange made an odd humming sound for several seconds. “They are acting rather odd for teenagers, though the data is pretty limited for only two encounters. I want to know why they bought those books – if they were looking for something to show off, they could have found cheaper volumes elsewhere. Those were of value because of their genre. You don’t often come across pre-dome scientific era science.”

Levi agreed with her. “Most kids would just go online if they have an interest in science.” So were they looking for something that had been lost or not scanned into the world’s database yet? And if so, why? Again, it left him with questions, and he hated that feeling. He fought monsters for a living, that was enough of an unknown equation for him to be faced with it when dealing with the humans in his life.

*******

If Hange could see Levi right now, she would probably be cheering on with some nonsense about him achieving personal growth or some even more asinine shit about ‘taking one for the team’, which she used now and then. What the hell did that last even mean? It sounded appalling like bending over and begging to be buggered by every fucking pervert in a ten block vicinity.

So what if he was out after hours by himself on patrol when he could be curled up in his room with a pot of tea and a good novel? There still hasn’t been a Malform attack in over three weeks, Hange and Moblit were still crunching data to figure out a pattern they could use to track down the mutated fucks and Mike’s famous nose hadn’t found shit. Levi just wanted to kill something before he died of boredom, it was as simple as that. He’d even go so far as give Erwin some unwarranted over-time.

Along with finding a depressing lack of blood-thirsty monsters, he also hadn’t seen any sign of that suspicious brat and his friends, despite keeping an eye out for him this past week. If he didn’t know better, he’d say the brat was avoiding him, which was ridiculous – the dome was huge. Yet as Levi had run across traces of him twice in a span of a couple of days so he kept waiting to see him again. He didn’t know what annoyed him more – that he hadn’t see him or that he kept having the expectation.

As most people obeyed the dome’s curfew at this point at the night, the streets were empty. The few stragglers who were out fled at the sight of Levi’s white and grey uniform, unwilling to chance that he wouldn’t turn them in even if he was only a member of the Freedom Corp; the MP had a deeply-instilled fear over people after being the main law enforcement for centuries.

All around him loomed the tall buildings that stretched up to the top of the dome, the stone structures that housed the people lucky enough to find sanctuary inside the artificial environment that protected them from the radiation outside. One shot from his gauntlet and he could almost reach the panels that provided the light during the day and sealed out the dangerous rays, the filters that kept the oxygen levels adequate for everyone to breathe properly. Almost fourteen hundred years since the earth became entirely fucked up and they still lived inside these artificial cages, venturing outside two months of the year. Almost fourteen hundred years and they were still fighting the same monsters.

At least they kept the place clean, Levi thought as he wandered the deserted streets. Perhaps they couldn’t use projectile or energy weapons for fear of damaging the dome, but there was no need for sanitation to suffer. Mutated dead feasting on the living? Power-hungry law enforcement overstepping their bounds? The haves taking more from the have-nots every year? Oh yeah, but it was all done in a clean, litter-free environment. Too bad he was the only one to appreciate that last bit. Then again, not all domes were so well-kept as Trost.

He had just paused to let one of the maintenance bots sweep past him when he heard what sounded to be a muffled snarl come from one of the smaller alleys. Spinning on his heel, he darted toward the direction of the sound, his right hand falling to the hilt of his blade while his left arm was held close to his body, ready to release a rappelling dart if he needed to take to the air.

As with every other dome he’d been in, Trost dimmed the lights come ‘night-time’ to achieve an approximation of the circadian rhythm found in nature as well as to conserve energy. Other than a very faint glow overhead and muted lights along the street, it was dark as fuck out, especially in the narrow alleys between buildings. All of that meant it was the perfect hunting territory for Malforms, which was part of the reason for the curfew. It sounded like some unlucky asshole who’d decided to break it had become dinner for one of the undead freaks.

Levi expected to turn the corner and find some poor fool lying in a pool of blood, their throat torn out by a pallid, bug-eyed monster with a mouthful of razor-sharp fangs. He’d cut off the dead fucker’s head and, depending on how badly the said fool had bled out, either stop the bleeding or put them out of their misery with a quick down-stroke before they could turn. He’d done it over a thousand times by now, the scent of blood causing him to instinctively reach for his blades.

What he didn’t expect to see was a huddled, struggling bundle of bodies not on the ground of the alley but well over a dozen feet up to his left, clinging to the wall. That left him confused for a precious few seconds, because while Malforms could fight and flee by jumping great heights and climbing almost anything, they fed where they caught their prey, which was on the ground.

As he lifted his left arm and readied his rappelling dart to take the fight to the Malform, the motion seemed to catch the monster’s attention. The feeding stopped – and that’s when Levi realized that it wasn’t a Malform feasting on a human, but a *Malform* that struggled weakly, its throat torn out and its blood splattering down to the ground. Holding it trapped with one arm, the other braced against the wall with fingers splayed, was the brat from the market.

“The hell…” Levi mumbled in shock, unable to look away from the golden eyes that glowed in the darkness, gleaming so brightly as if lit from behind. Blood smeared the tan face, causing strands of brown hair to cling to it.

“Scheiße.“ The brat grunted something, lips pulling back from a mouth too big, filled with too many teeth – too many *sharp* teeth – and shook his head, sending his chin-length hair flying about. The Malform dropped to the ground with a sickening *thud* and as Levi stood there in stunned amazement, the brat pushed away from the wall and landed gracefully on his feet as if a cat.

Seeing the brat standing a few feet away startled some sense into Levi - he didn’t know what the hell the brat was, but he figured that would be Hange’s problem after he beat him unconscious and dragged him back to headquarters.

He didn’t have the chance to do more than reach for his left blade as he prepared to launch himself at his target; one moment the brat was standing there, looking at him with those odd eyes with his head tilted to the side, appearing perfectly innocent even with his face all smeared with blood, and the next moment there was a blur and a bright flash of pain that exploded inside the right side of Levi’s head.

His last thought as the ground came smashing up to meet him was that fuck Hange and her need for samples, he was going to kill her first if he woke up craving blood.  
*******


	2. Demons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, thanks so much for the comments and feedback. Wasn't sure if anyone would notice this fic, especially with it being my first in the fandom. Just to let you know, there's no set posting schedule, but the intention for right now is that as long as I can keep the chapters to a manageable length (I usually write them a heck of a lot longer), I'll try to post every few days.

Levi woke to the sight of two anxious Petras leaning over as they fussed with the blankets covering him, their hair falling forward in an auburn blur the longer he stared at them. “… the fu….” A dry throat made him cough, which in turn led him to wondering if there were any sharp objects around so he could stab himself in the leg as a distraction to the current agony in his head. Oh, he was going to *eviscerate* that brat….

“Sir? Are you all right?”

Opening eyes that had been clenched tightly shut from the pain, he was grateful to see that there was only one Petra now, though anxious enough for two of them. “Yeah.” His head felt as if it had been slammed against a stone wall a few times, but that was nothing new – occupational hazard, per Hange. Limbs trembling from the pain, he attempted to sit up. “What the hell happened?” The room spun a bit and became out of focus, but he managed to lift up a few inches and stay there.

“Captain! I’m not sure- wait until I get Captain Hange!” Petra fled the room, and he thought he saw Oluo lurking near the doorway as she darted through it.

Wonderful, now his headache was about to get worse. Wondering what the hell he must have been in a past life to make this one so determined to have him suffer, Levi gave in and fell back onto the bed, letting out a curse as his sore head hit the pillow. Still, since his head and to a slighter extent his left arm were the only things bothering him, he had to assume that the brat hadn’t torn out his throat and treated him as a nice drink. Or had his mind finally snapped after so many years fighting monsters and losing the only people he cared about that he’d imagined the entire thing after he’d slipped in the shower? What the hell had happened between him being knocked out and ending up in the Corps’ lame excuse of a recovery room?

While he was pondering that question, Hange burst into the room with her usual enthusiasm and then had the gall to seem annoyed that he was alive. “Oh, you look well.” She frowned as she approached the bed, her hands stuffed inside the pockets of the white lab coat that she was wearing over her uniform. “Head still hurt? Feeling like your usual homicidal self yet?”

“Yes to both, now come here so I can throttle you,” he gritted out as he struggled to sit up. Dammit, why did head wounds take such a long recovery? You’d think that they could do something about them by now. “Give me something for the pain, you sadistic bitch.”

A beatific smile spread across Hange’s plain face. “Ah, ah, ah, you know how this works,” she cooed as she held up the injector in her right hand and dared to wave it back and forth just out reach. “Who am I and where are you?”

Oh for the- Levi took a deep, semi-calming breath and promised himself that one day, *one* day he would make good on that threat to throttle her. “You are the pain in the ass that Erwin Smith inflicted upon me for some reason I will beat out of him yet, and we’re here in the Freedom Corps’ headquarters in Trost. That good enough for you?”

She shrugged and finally stepped forward to give him the god-damned shot with obvious reluctance. “Eh, it doesn’t sound like that blow to the head did any more damage than usual.” As she pressed the injector against his left shoulder, Levi realized that his entire left arm and shoulder were a mass of bruises in a pattern similar to his gauntlet. Huh, guess the head wound had been more serious than he thought. “So, you going to tell me what happened last night?”

Sighing in relief as the pain washed out of him as if water draining away, Levi slumped forward and ran his hands through his hair, fingers rubbing against the shaved undercut for a few seconds. “You go first. Who found me?”

The room was quiet for a minute, save for Hange shuffling about, and then she dropped a folded uniform onto the bed beside him. Since he’d been cleaned while being patched up, he figured he might as well get dressed and return to duty. “Funny that you should ask that. Becker and Martina were on rotation in the section where you were found and came across you and the liquefied remains of a Malform.” He looked up while pulling the uniform onto his lap to find Hange staring at him with a blank expression. “From what they could tell, you managed to decapitate it while midair, but it must have put up a fight and slammed you into a wall at some point. You passed out shortly afterward without either making it back to the ground or going up higher, and were hanging suspended. Your gauntlet took the brunt of your weight, but if you hadn’t been discovered within an hour or so, you would have dislocated your shoulder or worse.”

Well, that explained the sore arm; gauntlets were designed to bear the brunt of the weight while swinging and being pulled up heights, but they weren’t a long-term, dangle forever type of gear. Levi began to dress, feeling more certain that he hadn’t imagined last night and thoughts busy on how the brat put so much effort into covering his tracks. That wasn’t the work of a mindless Malform, that took intelligence. “So they brought me back here?”

“Yeah.” Of course Hange didn’t bother to look aside as Levi stood up to pull on his pants, she merely raised an eyebrow and then made a show of yawning, the bitch. “You might find it interesting that Mike was present at the time and said that you smelled ‘odd’.”

That earned a snort of derision while Levi stepped into his boots. “*Mike* is odd.” Did he smell the brat? What did a blood-drinking, wall-clinging kid with eyes like glowing honey smell like?

“Oh sweetie, we *all* are odd,” Hange pointed out with conviction. “That’s why Erwin keeps us.”

There wasn’t much sense in arguing with that statement, so Levi saved the energy so he could finish healing and sat back down to finish with his boots. “What’s so funny about me taking out a Malform and being brought back here, other than Mike’s freaky nose?” he asked once he was finished dressing save for his jacket, gauntlet and weapons. All it took was for him to look around a couple of times for Hange to motion to a cupboard over to the right.

“Hmm, maybe because I know you better than you like, and I can’t see one little Malform giving you enough grief to render you unconscious.” She leaned back on the bed and batted her eyes, probably trying for a sexy pose but only looking more demented than normal. “Come on, it’s just you, me and the bed, you know you wanna spill your guts and confide in me the deepest depths of your depraved soul.” She even stuck out the pathetic excuse of her chest as if she thought that would help.

He hadn’t nearly been given enough pain meds today, Levi thought to himself as he paused in slipping on the gauntlet to rub at his face. When he was done, he looked back at a leering Hange and once again wondered what he’d done to deserve this present life and the insane bastards who populated it. When Erwin had dragged him out of the all-too appropriately named Tartarus dome and forced him into a Freedom Corps uniform, he’d also inflicted Hange on him to ‘show him the ropes’. At first Levi had thought the insane woman was clinging to him and- to him out of some weird type of pity, what with the constant attention and inane chatter, but then he realized that she was much like that with everyone and that it must be some bizarre type of experiment to see how long it took for people to break down in the face of her psychotic personality. He became determined then and there to skew her test results in the worst possible manner and never break under the onslaught… but damn if it wasn’t difficult some days, and dammit if she hadn’t grown on him over the years. He never thought he’d consider the science-obsessed psycho a friend.

Which was why he actually found himself pulling up a chair and, after ensuring that it was up to his standards of cleanliness, sat down in it with his arms folded over the back. “So you think something else happened last night?” If he truly had imagined the brat, Hange would call his mind on its bullshit.

“Definitely. No one as strong and skilled as you would let a measly undead freak take him down.” Hange continued her pose for a few more seconds before laughing, folding forward until her arms wrapped around her knees. “Seriously, you’re more a killing machine than they are.”

Since he knew that she meant it as a compliment, he nodded once and ran his right hand through his hair, mindful that he was still missing his gloves. “All right, but don’t go running around babbling about this, okay?” When she merely grinned in response, he glared and stabbed his right index finger in her direction. “Promise me, or die of curiosity.”

A loud, drawn out gasp squeezed its way out of Hange. “Oh! Add cruel and manipulative to all those other adjectives,” she said with a pout. However, she was soon back to her annoying, bouncy self. “But I love you that way, so spill!”

Definitely not enough pain meds, Levi told himself. “You remember that brat who was dumb enough to mess with the MPs but smart enough to take off with your books?” He couldn’t shake the image of those eyes, so big and golden in a face that seemed so young and innocent, the garish contrast of all that blood and those teeth….

Hange began to actually bounce on the damn bed; someone better disinfect it really well before they brought in a new patient. “Oh! The pretty blond or the cute brunet?” When he resumed glaring at her, she laughed and clapped her hands together. “Aw, you know they both were pretty, why do you think I called you a pervert for noticing them?” she snickered.

“How pretty would you think they are after seeing one of them rip out the throat of a Malform and drink its blood?” He could still recall the undead freak’s weak struggles and the sound it made as it hit the ground. “Fuck,” he groaned as he rubbed at his own throat, which ached at the thought of how he might have been the next meal.

“Which one?”

It took a few seconds for Levi to realize that Hange was asking him something. “Huh?”

She put her feet down on the floor and leaned forward, her hands resting on her knees. “Which one? The blond or the brunet. You said ‘brat’, singular, so which one preyed on the Malform.” There was a familiar gleam in her brown eyes, the one she got when she felt she was about to unlock a great scientific secret – or about to unleash mass chaos.

Feeling that he might be setting loose the latter, Levi wondered if it wasn’t too late to crawl back into bed and feign unconsciousness. “The brunet with the big eyes. I interrupted his meal and before I could drag him back here for you to dissect or whatever, he knocked me out. Must have been him who strung me up and killed the Malform, too,” he admitted with a touch of reluctance; it wasn’t so much that someone had gotten past his guard, but a damn kid who was probably half his age.

However, he was spared any teasing from Hange over that fact as she only nodded a few times and mumbled something to herself for at least a minute, until Levi got tired of the extra-crazy routine. “Oi! You gonna share?”

At first it seemed as if she was going to continue to ignore him, at which point he started to rise from the chair. “Apex predator.”

“What? Don’t speak nonsense,” he complained as he shoved the chair back to the desk and leaned against that instead.

Hange pushed up her glasses and motioned at his weapons, which were still on the shelf. “Apex predator, which is the top predator in the food chain. For millennia, you could say humans were that, to the point that we ruined our environment and killed off thousands of species. Maybe that’s why the Malforms came into being, as a way to cull us back into sustainable numbers. Only now, there seems to be a new apex predator, something that can hunt and feed off of Malforms.”

Fuck, it sounded like she truly believed him; she even had a working, albeit insane theory for what he’d seen. The sad thing was, as bugshit crazy as Hange’s theories could be, they often were proven true if given enough time and effort. Levi wondered if Erwin still had any of that whisky left as he fetched his blades. “And what if this apex predator decides he wants to snack on something other than Malforms?”

Hange jumped to her feet and followed him out of the recovery room. “He left you alive, didn’t he? I would take that as a ‘no’, at least for now.” Once they were out of the room, she smiled in the face of his warning look and made a show of pressing her lips together. “So, if you’re feeling up to it, I’d suggest you have something to eat. Maybe a nice warm drink, too, if you have anything *special*.” Judging from the way her left eye was twitching, the bitch was alluding to what he had stashed in his room and the way she’d kept *that* a secret. Not like she had much of a choice, as she was complicit as hell in raiding that warehouse back in Nedehl, and ‘accidentally’ forgetting to tell Erwin about the crate of tea when they turned over everything else.

About to start ranting that it was the people he worked with whom made him so glad that he routinely smacked his head into walls, Levi found himself stopped after just a few words when Keji came racing toward them. Appearing flushed from the run, Keji made frantic motions toward them and then back in the way he had just come. “Captains! Commander Smith needs to see you both right now!”

Sharing a grim look with Hange, Levi hurried down the hall toward Erwin’s office with Hange right beside him. Somehow, he doubted Erwin was that concerned about his health and wanted an immediate update – had someone else seen the brat last night? Or had there been a feeding in broad daylight?

Erwin was busy on the vidcom as they entered the tiny office, so Levi and Hange remained close to the wall while he finished the conversation. Hange sprawled on one of the chairs as if she lacked both bones and nerves while Levi didn’t want to waste the effects of the pain meds so leaned against the wall instead.

“Keep me updated.” Erwin ended the call and then covered his eyes with his left hand, quiet for a moment as if gathering his thoughts. Unused to seeing his friend at a loss of words like this, Levi fought the urge to reach for his blades in reassurance and folded his arms across his chest instead, the fingers of his right hand stroking along his gauntlet. Letting out a slow breath, Erwin sat up straight in his chair and turned to face them.

“That was Shadis. He called to let me know that the Ragako dome has taken heavy casualties from Malforms within the last twenty four hours and that there’s been no contact with the Utgard dome at all.” Erwin’s hands folded beneath his chin and his demeanor was calm, as if he was reporting on the usual rotation status and not the loss of thousands of lives; Levi recognized the mask after years of working together and knew that behind the seemingly placid exterior, Erwin’s brilliant mind was trying to connect the pieces together on what was happening and why.

Hange shoved her chair back against the wall and jumped to her feet, too upset to stay still. “They’re doing it again.”

“Obviously, even if we don’t know what ‘it’ is other than mass slaughter of humans,” Erwin agreed. “Something has stirred up the Malforms, and all of us are on watch in case they decide to do the same here.” He turned his attention to Levi. “You fought one of them for the first time in weeks, was there anything unusual about its behavior?”

Levi was aware of not only Erwin’s regard but Hange’s as well; she would follow his lead if he decided to tell Erwin about the brat, yet something held him back. “No, it was the normal undead freak,” he replied, careful to not come across as too bored or defensive.

“But one who managed to get the drop on you,” Erwin pointed out in that annoyingly calm manner of his.

Levi made a disgusted clicking sound with his tongue and rolled his eyes. “No, that was me getting cocky and misjudging how far away the damn wall was in the excitement of having something to do for once. If a rookie had done such a stupid thing, I’d have them so busy with training exercises they’d fall down in exhaustion before dinner, but I’ll cut myself a little slack,” he drawled.

There was a brief staring contest between the two of them until Erwin decided he had better things to do than try to browbeat Levi with only a dirty look. Well, he did have the advantage on the ‘brow’ part there. Perhaps sensing that Levi wasn’t taking this serious anymore, Erwin huffed and turned to look back at his vidcom. “You have patrols to do,” he told them.

“Yes! We’ll be sure to let you know if we come across hordes of Malforms!” Hange practically chirped as she tugged on Levi to leave the office. “Have a *great* day!”

Well, it was a good thing that someone was in a nice mood. “I need my gloves and a ball-gag for you.” Levi pulled his arm free and set about getting his stuff while Hange screeched something about him being no fun.

*******

“Why do you think the Malforms are attacking now? There doesn’t seem to be a cyclical pattern to their destruction, as the last time something like this happened was over ten years ago, and almost thirty-five years before that.” Hange was consulting the little notebook she carried with her that was a lot more durable than any datapad, considering the high probability of going airborne or into a fight at any moment, and scribbled something down. “They don’t seem to be tied to any solar flares or environmental stimulus that we’ve noticed, either. So….”

Levi scowled at some dumpy woman and her squalling spawn until both hurried out of his way and then shrugged. “Don’t see how what happened last night could affect two domes over a hundred miles away,” he told her, guessing what she was alluding to with the leading question. “But by all means, ask the brat when I find him.” He clenched his right fist, very eager to have that ‘question and ask’ session with the kid. “Maybe he’ll know why they seem determined to wipe out their main food source.”

Of course Hange caught the motion and sniffed in disapproval. “I need him in some sort of condition to talk, remember.” She went back to scribbling in her notebook and muttering to herself, somehow managing to avoid walking into people or tripping over anything. No doubt about it, the woman was a freak.

People seemed happy to see the two of them out and about, whispering and pointing at their uniforms and the wings emblazoned on their sleeves and backs, at the long blades on their hips and the hint of silver at the left wrist. Levi was willing to guess that word was starting to spread about Ragako and Utgard, which was only confirmed when he started to spot all of the MPs on duty. He’d never seen so many out in uniform unless there was some special function, and while a few sneered as he and Hange walked past, for the most part they were left alone. Lots of MP shitstains *and* they were on good behavior? Hell yes, something was going on.

Nile Dok was probably trying to show that his people were just as serious about protecting Trost as the Freedom Corps, even if the MPs weren’t worth shit in a true fight. No, the MPs would scatter and run at the first sign of a Malform, more worried about saving their own necks and those of the elite than anyone in this section of the dome. If the Malforms did decide to massacre everyone, the MPs here would only make sure that they were able to stave off a mass riot headed toward the heart of the dome, where the privileged lived.

Doing some sneering himself, Levi forced his attention away from the assholes with their stupid green and white emblems and focused on his job. There were certain signs to watch out for that would indicate a prowling Malform, as they preferred to lurk in the shadows before attacking, certain ways the light and darkness would twist. It wasn’t a completely sterile environment in a dome; over the centuries domestic pets such as birds and cats had gone free or been set loose/left neglected, and of course it seemed impossible to have humans without vermin such as rats and cockroaches as well. They were other signs to read, as they always fled from a Malform’s presence.

Right now, it appeared to be just another day in the dome, with the temperature control a little on the cool side, people out and about as they found something to do or completed their work assignments, mindful of the MPs and the fact that they all lived in a closed environment. Levi didn’t know how they put up with their boring existences without going crazier than Hange.

Busy surveying the crowd and answering the occasional check-ins from his squad, he almost missed the sight of blond and brunet heads grouped close together as they hurried past over a dozen feet away. Their backs were to him, but the way the brunet’s shoulders stiffened as an MP called out something was familiar, as was the manner in which the blond attempted to tug his companion away before trouble started. Levi acted without thinking; he shoved his way through the crowd, his strength and uniform helping to make the people give way, and within seconds he was laying gloved hands on the brat’s shoulders and spinning him around.

“Try something, you little-“

The dark brown hair was cut about jaw length around a face that was actually tanner than the brat’s, adding to the illusion that it was him from a distance, but it was longer in the back and pulled back in a messy ponytail. Also, this person’s face was thinner and dusted with freckles, and lacking those huge, golden eyes.

“What the hell is your problem!?”

Levi let go of the stranger at the same time that Hange finally caught up with him, a confused expression on her face. She looked back and forth between the scowling stranger and the puzzled blonde girl who was now huddled at the brunette’s side, both dressed in worn but clean pants and tunics that had seen better days, and sighed. “So you’re really into girls now?”

“No!” Levi pinched the bridge of his nose and barely suppressed the urge to smack the idiot. “I’m-, look, I mistook you for someone else, okay? You looked just like him from behind,” he tried to explain to the teenaged girl who appeared ready to punch him.

“But she’s a girl,” Hange pointed out, being not very helpful. “And the eye color and facial structure’s not at all the same. Your observational skills suck, Levi, if you can’t even tell gold and brown apart!” She slapped him on the back as she laughed. “Guess we know what *you* were looking at on the-“

He didn’t bother turning around, he just kicked backward and barely smiled when he connected, *hard*, with the pain in his ass’ shin. The muffled yelp of agony almost distracted him from the fact that while the scowling bitch in front of hardly blinked at Hange’s antics, the blonde let out the slightest gasp at Hange’s description of the brat and glanced up at her friend.

“Ymir?”

The scowling bitch, who seemed to enjoy scowling *down* her nose at Levi, scoffed once and shrugged her right shoulder, her left arm wrapped tight around the blonde girl. “Yeah, well, get your eyes checked and learn some manners, Shortie. You might get punched if you go grabbing the wrong person.” Her condescending tone made it clear that she was sparing him that beating this time, and she nearly brushed against Levi as the two of them went on their way.

He watched them leave, the way their heads were clustered together as if whispering to each other. Hange hobbled over to him and glanced back and forth a few times before pulling out her notebook again. “So, what was all that about, besides you nearly molesting a woman for the first time in your life?”

“How are you *not* some new type of Malform that feeds off of the emotional suffering your presence inflicts upon people rather than blood?” Levi asked, perfectly serious and not expecting an answer as he resumed their patrol.

Of course all that question did was provoke a pleased laugh from the lunatic. “Good, good! It would be an interesting twist in evolution, wouldn’t it?” Hange scribbled a little more as she tagged along. “But seriously, you let her get away with a crack to your height like that? I’ve seen you make more important people cry for such a thing.”

He chose to ignore that last part. “Something was up with those two. I think the bitch was taunting me to try to cover for the fact that her friend let it slip that she recognized the brat when you described him.”

“Really?” Hange stopped scribbling and scrunched her nose as she seemed to consider the situation with the two girls. “Do you think they’re friends? Would they know about… and be covering for him?” Her voice grew higher in pitch as she became excited about the prospect.

“Calm down, Shitty Glasses,” Levi hissed as he grabbed hold of her left arm and dragged her in close. “Don’t cause a scene,” he reminded her. “If they do know about him, the last thing they’d want is someone from the Corps looking for him. Or maybe they’re looking for him for some reason, too. It can’t be much of a secret if a bunch of people know.” That was common street wisdom.

“Yeah, yeah.” Finished with her notes, Hange tucked away the book, then clasped her hands together and stretched out her arms in front of her. “Just think, a few days ago we were bored out of our minds, just waiting for a Malform to appear and tired of sitting on our asses. Now we’re on alert for a horde of them to start a slaughter, hunting down a cutie who kicked your butt and who might already have a girlfriend or two, and left with a big mystery as well as possibly an entirely new species.” Judging from the amount of excitement in her voice, she was loving every minute of it.

Levi stepped closer so he could smack her on the back of her head, purposely using his left hand to do it. “Moron, don’t go tempting fate like that, and the brat didn’t kick my butt. He just got a lucky shot in,” he grumbled. Anyone would have been left stunned in Levi’s shoes; the next time, Levi’s guard wouldn’t be down those precious few seconds. The next time the two of them crossed paths, there would be bloodshed and it wouldn’t be Levi’s.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should be one more Levi PoV and then we'll start shaking things up by alternating with the others (as much as I love the Levi and Hange interaction/snarking). Also, there will be some flashbacks as well to fill in on history. In case you hadn't guessed, you'll start to see some of the other characters creep into the action now as things start to tie together.


	3. Under Pressure

*******  
Levi evaluated the new recruits they had picked up before leaving the Maria dome and felt his left eye twitch as he noticed one in particular, a young woman with her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail similar in style to Hange’s. That alone should be a sign that this one would be another pain in the ass, but no, this brilliant specimen of humanity decided to use hand to hand combat training time as a chance to half-ass it, apparently.

“Erd.”

“Yes, Captain?” Levi’s second in command came over from where he was assisting another new recruit with a gauntlet fitting, a curious look on his face as he stood at attention.

“Go beat some sense into that idiot’s head,” Levi ordered and gestured to the girl, who was currently standing in some ridiculous pose that she’d probably seen in a vid, one leg bent and both arms in the air above her head, a long blade in her *mouth* of all things. “Beat her hard,” Levi added, disgusted that she’d sullied a perfectly clean, functional weapon like that, even if it was just a training blade.

A corner of Erd’s mouth twitched as he bowed his head in acceptance, his hands lifting to make sure his blond hair was snug in its ponytail as he turned on his heel and went to do his captain’s bidding. Certain that the recruits would soon learn the importance of taking their training serious, one in particular, Levi resumed his stroll through the training grounds.

Space was always at a premium in a dome, but the Freedom Corps rated as important enough for their headquarters to allow them barracks and enough open ground to practice hand to hand and rappelling drills. Levi didn’t truly feel free until the two months when they could leave the domes and go on foraging runs to find new supplies and any spaces that might support a new dome, but it beat the cramped quarters where everyone else but the elite and the MPs lived. The only other alternative if you wanted space were the agri-domes, but Levi would rather cut off his fucking hands than live in one of them.

Convinced that most of the new recruits would last at least a few minutes against a Malform, he went to see what was happening inside the barracks; Hange was occupied going over some data with Moblit, but Erwin had been suspiciously quiet the last couple of days. A quiet Erwin was a plotting Erwin, and a plotting Erwin meant that somewhere, someone was about to suffer. Now that could be a very good thing, except that Levi was almost always involved in said suffering somehow - either by doing a shitload of work to bring it about, and sometimes by being a target of said suffering. Chances were 90/10, depending on how off-target he’d been on orders lately. Presenting the Chairman of Maria with a bucketful of Malform goo and telling him it had more of a spine in that form than the asshole did might have been satisfying as hell, but it tilted the odds toward that 10%.

Levi’d always insisted to Erwin that his diplomatic skills weren’t worth shit.

He was halfway across the open plaza that served as the training ground when he recognized the uniforms of the three people striding toward him, the black, green and white standing out among the grey and white of the Freedom Corps. What was even more remarkable was the fact that sandwiched between the two younger men was Nile Dok himself, his grizzled, dark hair and trimmed goatee in stark appearance to the lighter hair of the MP on his right and the shaved head of the short MP on his left. He stalked forward as if he had every right to be on Corps’ property, but then again, arrogance was the bastard’s default setting.

It wasn’t much of a surprise when Erwin came out to join Levi, a bland smile on his face as he called out a greeting to the MP commander. “Good day to you, Nile.”

“That remains to be seen, Smith.” Nile came to a stop in front of them, the two baby MPs halting a step behind him. “Well, let’s get this over with in a more private setting, shall we?” He motioned toward the building behind them.

Erwin’s smile increased by the slightest increment. “By all means.” He nodded at Levi, a silent invitation to join them. Knowing that he’d enjoy seeing Erwin take this shitty bastard down a notch or two, Levi figured that he didn’t have anything better to do at the moment and followed.

They drew some curious stares as they made their way to Erwin’s office, but the Corps was too well-disciplined to do more than that while in Erwin’s presence. Oh, there certainly would be much mocking of the MP shitstains at dinner tonight, which Levi would look forward to, but it would wait until then. Once in Erwin’s office, he took position next to Erwin’s desk and bit back on a smirk as the MPs were left to deal with those horrid chairs. The short kid lucked out in that he got to stand by the door.

Nile sneered as he looked around the cramped space, filled with the two chairs for guests, three filing cabinets, a bookshelf and a desk topped with a vidcom and several datapads. No doubt the asshole thought that Erwin deserved better as commander of the Freedom Corps, and failed to understand that he wasn’t a man who put on useless airs; that was part of the reason why the Corps followed him. Erwin devoted himself to action, to wiping out the Malforms and protecting humanity, and everything else was just background noise as far as he was concerned.

“Are you that pressed for space?”

“No,” Erwin replied, just the one word said in a mild manner, yet something in his expression wiped the snide look off of Nile’s face and made the two baby MPs sit/stand up at attention. “Now, may we get to the reason why you’re here, as I’m sure we both have other important matters that require our attention.” Levi just managed not to scoff in derision at that statement - Erwin, sure, but Nile? The man probably had a busy day of ass-kissing ahead of him.

Tugging on the hem of his jacket as if uncomfortable, Nile frowned for a moment and then leaned forward. “The Chairman wants to know what your plans are to deal with the Malform threat. He wants to be assured that the dome will be properly protected.”

He wanted to be sure that his precious neck would be protected, was what Nile meant.

Erwin laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them, blithely ignoring the opening that Niles had left for him since he could be diplomatic. “You can inform him that we’re devoting all of our resources to the problem at hand. We’ve increased our patrols as well as the training of our new recruits so they’ll be ready to step into rotations sooner than intended.”

“So you’re just gonna stand around and wait?” the baby MP with the long face and blond hair with a dark undercut spat out, appearing all indignant until Nile shot him a disapproving look. Ah, getting a silent smack-down from his superior sure took the wind from his sails quick.

Levi leaned against the desk and folded his arms over his chest, the sleeves of his grey jacket pulling up enough that it revealed the silver wire of his gauntlet. “Well, it would help if we had some fresh bait to draw out the Malforms. Wanna volunteer? They like them young and stupid.” That earned him a glare from the baby MP, who was still too cowed by Nile to do more than that. The other baby MP hid a smile behind his right hand.

Nile finished giving the young idiot the stink eye and turned his ire back to Erwin. “Just be sure to show some results.”

Erwin held up his hands and managed an innocent expression despite all the murky shit that went on in his head. “I’m not sure what the Chairman expects of us, as the Freedom Corps’ job has always been protection. While we are as proactive as possible, our skills are best put to service when the Malforms attack, and we are doing everything we can to be prepared for that possibility. May I remind you that the Chairman hired my division, which has the best success rate out of all the Freedom Corps.”

“And the highest price tag,” Nile muttered as he rose to his feet. “Make sure you’re worth it.” His shoulders sagged a little as he looked over the desk at Erwin. “I know you’re the best, it’s just that the news from Ragako isn’t good at all. The casualties are rising each hour. And they’re thinking that Utgard is a total loss.” The MP with the shaved head lost his smile at the mention of the Ragako dome while the other one took to glaring at Levi as if it was his fault that the Malforms were raging.

“I’m aware of the situation in those domes, and we’ve lost a lot of good comrades fighting Malforms,” Erwin reminded the MPs. “The only way they reach the civilians is after we’ve laid down our lives.” He touched the Wings of Freedom symbol on his right chest.

Levi met the baby MPs glare and returned it with a cold stare of his own. How many Malforms had this young shitstain fought? How many people had he beheaded to stop them from turning into more undead freaks? There were times when Levi’s hands shook from the shock of cutting through vertebrae long after he was done fighting, muscle memory taking over when he stood under the hot water in the showers desperate to be clean.

He wasn’t surprised when the kid turned his head away after a few seconds and scrambled to his feet to join Nile. “I’d rather you don’t have to pay that price,” Nile admitted before he made his departure, the baby MPs trailing after him like shit flushed down the drain.

Erwin and Levi were quiet for a minute after they left, and then Erwin let out a slow breath. “Is it me or are they getting younger each year?” he asked, probably referring to the baby MPs. “We must be getting older.”

“What’s this ‘we’ shit,” Levi grumbled as he sat down on an edge of the desk that was free of datapads. “You’re the one getting fat and lazy from sitting at this desk too much and plotting bullshit.”

Erwin grinned in a self-depreciating manner as he ran a hand down his chest, which was clearly defined through the white shirt he wore. “Perhaps I should partner with you during a rotation or two.”

“Hmm, it would be a welcome change from Hange’s endless chatter.” Levi hopped off of the desk and prepared to leave. “So what do you think that was all about? As if we don’t know how important it is to do our job.” He rolled his eyes to show what he thought about Nile’s little show.

In the process of picking up a datapad, Erwin paused and seemed to consider the question. “I think it’s Nile’s way of letting me know that the Chairman and his council are growing concerned, and it’s never a good thing if they feel they have to take a matter into their own hands.” He acknowledged Levi’s ‘no shit’ expression with a smile. “Yes, they don’t have a history of making wise decisions. Hopefully Hange will have some data for us soon so we can concentrate our numbers in key areas and make a show of force.”

“It’s a pretty sad day when we’re counting on Hange to pull our asses out of the fire,” Levi complained as he went out to see if there were any more idiot recruits he could beat up for their own sakes.

******

“You know what I miss? I miss rain.”

Levi wondered how he could get his hands on more pain meds, now that his head injury had fully healed. “You know what *I* miss? Com silence unless you’ve spotted Malforms,” he gritted out in response to Hange’s senseless prattle. They were stationed apart and he *still* had to put up with her, dammit.

“But-“

“*Com* *silence*,” he repeated with such a fierce tone that Erd shot him a concerned glance. They continued with their patrol for almost an entire rotation around the large market plaza before he heard an offended sniff over the private com channel.

“I think someone hasn’t seen a certain cutie in too long and is feeling frustrated. Just find a decent ass to look at and make do for now, you grump.”

That was it, he was going to kill her. He was going to kill her and hang up her body as a warning to all other lunatics that-

“Uhm, Sir, doesn’t that hurt?”

Levi realized that he was grinding his teeth together and stopped, his jaw now aching from the pressure. Since Hange seemed content to have the last word and finally shut her fucking mouth, he decided that he could settle with her later and focused on work, which was patrolling the market. Despite being the biggest pain in the ass ever, Hange had filtered through the data and concluded that if the Malforms were going to attack en masse, that they would be drawn to human gatherings where their prey felt secure yet were out in the open. Markets were ideal in that there were plenty of places for the Malforms to lurk, what with all the side streets and alleys feeding into the open spaces which housed the many booths set up to display wares, not to mention the sewer system below.

There were four main markets in Trost, and one didn’t count as it was a tech market and held inside a warehouse with controlled entrances/exits that would make it almost impossible for Malforms to attack as a large pack. Of course, ‘almost’ didn’t mean it was ruled out, which was why there was still a Corps presence there, it just didn’t rate Erwin’s, Hange’s and Levi’s attention.

Much to Hange’s dismay, Levi was assigned the University Market, downstreet from the Trost University, while she was stuck with the South Gate Market. Erwin, the most ‘diplomatic’ of the three of them, not to mention the highest ranking, took duty of the Stohess Market, which was close to the elite area of the dome. The rest of the Corps, including the recruits, were scattered about the dome, with most of them clustered about the markets so they could respond quickly if the Malforms attacked in any concentrated area.

Levi didn’t know if the plan would work or not, but considering that both Hange and Erwin had put a lot of effort into it, the Malforms were screwed if they showed their fucked up faces.

The University Market was busy, full of people who didn’t seem to have anything better to do than spend their time looking at a bunch of crap. The open space was filled with the sound of people bartering and calling out to each other, their voices melding into a low cacophony that was giving Levi a headache. He glanced down at a table covered with what looked to be necklaces made out of crude, multi-color beads and shook his head. People wasted credits on this shit?

Something must have shown on his face because Erd stifled a laugh. “I hear that there’s a demand for hand-crafted goods,” he explained as they continued their patrol around the circumference of the crowded market.

Levi clicked his tongue in disgust. “I make my own shit, you don’t see me here selling it.” People were idiots, it was as simple as that. Their lives had to be so boring that they latched on to anything to fill the void, when they should be thankful that they had warm, clean beds, someplace safe to sleep and food to eat. None of them had to risk their lives for any of that shit, yet here they were, parading around as Malform bait when they didn’t have to, all in order to buy fucking knitted tea cozies.

… well, maybe he could understand that last item.

He was about to glance back to see if they had any in some other colors besides ‘ghastly’ and ‘putrid’, and nearly got ran into by a teenaged girl who was actually shorter than him. What the hell was it with kids these days? He grabbed her by the arms to keep both of them toppling into a table covered with what were probably boot-legged vids and earned a scowl for his troubles. The hood of the cream-colored tunic she was wearing beneath a brown jacket slid down to reveal her blonde hair, and the look in her blue eyes were rather virulent considering that she was at least as much to blame as he was for their near collision.

Grunting something that may have been either an apology or a ‘fuck you’, she jerked her arms free and immediately headed in the opposite direction before Levi could tell her off for her manners. Grateful that he’d never managed to procreate and so contribute to the plague of teenagers that seemed determined to annoy the hell out of him anymore, Levi glared at her the entire time she was in his sight, noting when she met up with two other kids who towered over her. One of them glanced his way and seemed to jump in nervousness, quick to pull the other two away into the crowd.

Well, that wasn’t suspicious at all, was it? Levi shook his head and resumed stalking through the market, his thoughts drawn back to the brat with the golden eyes. What was it with suspicious kids hanging out in threesomes? Was it some rule that you had to pair up two guys and a girl? There was a pain in his chest when he thought about- No, now wasn’t the time, he told himself, his hands clenched into fists as he forced the memories aside.

Erd must have realized that his mood took a downward turn after that, because they finished the rest of the rotation with very little said between the two of them, other than the occasional check-in over the coms with the rest of the squad.

*******

“Do you really believe that they’ll target a main dome like Trost?”

Levi considered Erd’s question as he rubbed at his tired eyes, wishing that he’d had more tea that morning before leaving his quarters. There was probably a booth somewhere here that served coffee, but his stomach felt too unsettled for the brackish swill that passed for the beverage this far north. He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, taunted by dreams of Isabel and Farlan, by how he’d- dammit.

“Who the hell knows what those things think, other than wanting their next meal. It’s just better to be prepared than be caught with our pants around our ankles.” When Erd frowned but didn’t say anything, Levi sighed and rubbed the back of his neck instead. “It’s not normal, how long they’ve gone without an obvious feeding. Erwin has a right to be concerned.”

That didn’t seem to put the man at ease, but then again, who would be when they’d just been told that there was a good likelihood that a bunch of undead monsters would attack soon? At least all Erd did was drop his hands closer to his blades and resume scanning the market instead of running away screaming in terror, as if Levi would have anyone made of lesser stuff on his squad.

Over a month without a Malform kill, other than the one that the brat had fed from and let Levi ‘claim’, and the whole Corps was getting twitchy. It was more than the fact that it was their job, it was that the Ragako dome was pretty much decimated by now, and no one knew what had set off the Malforms there before the attack. Had it been a similar lull in kills? Too bad the experts were the first ones to fall, and the survivors too busy screeching for help that they knew could never come to answer any questions.

The Corps also knew that if the Malforms had somehow refrained from feeding for so long, that they would be ravenous when they finally attacked. Malforms were always hungry, but a starved Malform? That would make their job even more difficult, and they lost enough lives on a good day. If you wanted job security, you joined the Engineers and maintained the domes. If you wanted status, you strove for the MPs. If you wanted to kick ass, die young and have a chance to see what was left of the world, you joined the Freedom Corps.

Fuck, but his thoughts were grim today. He should his head to try to clear it of them. “Oi, Shitty Glasses, please tell me that a Malform is currently chewing on your liver.”

Hange’s bright laughter rang clear over the com. “If that’s your idea of a pick-up line, sweetie, it needs more work before you run into any cuties again. Speaking of which, have you seen one?”

He’d take that as a ‘no’ on the Malforms. “Would I be bothering with you if I did?” Maybe he needed to hang out in dark alleys some more, but Erwin had forbidden anyone from going out by themselves at night, including Levi. Normally he’d ignore orders such as that, except he had the feeling the bastard would start prying into things if he disobeyed. “All I see are a bunch of stupid people buying garbage.” He ignored the offended gasp of some stuck up prick walking past and Erd’s chuckle.

“I’ll be sure to let you know if I see a Malform or a cutie. Good luck hunting!”

The fact that she sounded equally happy about both prospects was disturbing as hell, yet she managed to put Levi in a better mood for a short while. Soon enough he grew annoyed over the fact that he was spending yet another day surrounded by crap and people stupid enough to buy it, waiting for undead monsters to attack, and he had yet to see a bunch of bratty kids.

There had been no signs of the brat and his friends, nor the other weird threesome. Hell, he hadn’t even seen the two girls again so he could question them about their connection to the brat. If he were a paranoid man, he’d begin to think that they were avoiding him when the simple fact was that Trost was a big dome. Still, the only good thing about being stuck on market duty was that this was the type of place where most people came through at some point.

They were coming close to the end of their shift and when Petra and Olou would take over the rotation when Levi caught a flash of gold out of the corner of his eye. He turned to the left and saw a small blond figure running toward the corner of the market, the hood of his dark brown jacket slipped back from his head due to the rapid motion. Recognizing the kid as one of the brat’s friends, he felt a rush of excitement and stepped forward without thinking.

“Captain?”

“I need to catch that kid and anyone who’s with him,” Levi explained to Erd as he pointed at the blond teenager. “I think they might know something about the Malforms.” It wasn’t much of an explanation, but Erd had followed him long enough that a simple command was all that was really needed. Nodding once, Erd moved with him through the crowd.

They were close enough to the kid that Levi could make out two other hooded figures, one with a bit of red peeking out at the collar of a brown coat, when he heard what sounded to be a loud, enraged roar. Part of him wanting to leap forward and grab the three kids in front of him, Levi let out a growl of frustration as he spun in the direction of the noise, his hands falling to his weapons in one smooth motion as he went to investigate what the fuck it was. When a panicked scream then echoed through the plaza, he didn’t waste any time and sent a rappelling dart at the nearest wall so he could gain air and see what the hell was happening.

As soon as he cleared the heads of the crowd, he could spot at least ten Malforms pouring in from the northwest streets, and what looked to be another dozen from the southeast. “Fuck, Malforms are closing in on University Market and sealing it off! Converge here and come in high!” he sent out on the com’s open channel, hoping like hell that this was the only place they were hitting right now. Sensing that Erd was behind him, he motioned that he’d take the south and for his second to take the north.

Erd sailed past him while he ditched the wire and fired another one to change course, the sensation of freefall almost calming before the tug of the wire caught him. People were truly panicking now, everyone shoving about as they tried to get away from the Malforms, and the scent of blood filled the air.

He came in hard and used momentum to barrel into two of the undead freaks, knocking them down as they cushioned his fall. They were beheaded before they could regain their feet, and then he was on to the next Malform, a snarling six footer still partially clothed in the garments it wore when it had been turned. Spinning to the right at the last moment, he lashed out with his foot to knock it aside, then sliced through its neck while rappelling past it. That took him near a throng of feeding Malform, the motion enough to distract a few of them from the poor bastard they were tearing apart.

Three of the freaks leapt up to follow him, their claws digging into the walls as they climbed, and he fired off a few more darts as he weaved back and forth across the building’s facade. When he had them lined up just right, he swung downward, right hand lashing out to strike down two of them, the third disabled but not decapitated.

“Oh! Mark this down, Levi missed!” Hange crowed as she swooped in for the kill. She landed a moment later, and behind her, Moblit was taking care of the victims unlucky enough to not be able to survive their wounds by removing their heads. As Levi joined her on the ground, he noticed that the Corps were arriving in droves – but that more Malforms were also pouring in.

“How many of these fucking bastards are there?” He allowed himself a moment to check his blades before he launched himself back into the air, Hange following him while he searched for the nearest target. Unfortunately, there were more than enough.  
  
“I can’t tell you for certain, but it’s at least triple the estimated hundred.” For once, she sounded suitably dour. “They’ve completely enclosed the market and have turned it into a killing field.”

“Wonderful.” Spotting two Malforms who were giving a new recruit a hard time, he released his wire and dove for a loose one, the gauntlet taking the brunt of his body’s impetus while his gloves protected his hands from being sliced open as it gripped the thin cord. He swore when he saw one of the Malform tear out the throat of the recruit in one bite, his blades slicing through several seconds too late, and twisted around to take out the other one.

All around him were the screams of the panicked and the dying, the screeches of the Malforms as they attacked and feasted. The Corps fought on the ground and in the air, the hiss and thud of rappelling darts almost as constant as the impact of steel into flesh. Soon they would run out of wire to shoot, but at least they were in an enclosed environment and could reuse what had already been expended.

Spotting a Malform that was about to attack what appeared to be a family huddled beneath a table, Levi slid down the wire and dropped the last ten feet or so, his boots absorbing the shock of the fall. He rolled within striking distance and lashed out once close, taking it out before the bastard could do more than claw at the man trying to protect the others, and then he was back on his feet, looked for the next Malform. Scattered around him were ragged, bleeding bodies and severed limbs, some of the corpses belonging to civilians but too many of them wearing the Corps uniform.

Dammit, this was worse than what had happened at Maria…. He yelled, the sound inarticulate from rage, when he witnessed several Malform swarm Ilse and was too far away to do anything. Gunther and Erd swooped in with their blades flashing, but he knew that they would be too late to do anything but keep her from turning – if there was even that much left of her.

Ahead of Levi was someone struggling in midair, dangling from a wire as they writhed about in pain. He finished with another Malform and was about to shot a new wire to go assist, and then saw that Erwin was already there, grabbing hold of the wounded fighter – Renaldo, from Hange’s squad. Considering that the man’s entire right arm had been torn off, there was no hope of him receiving medical attention quickly enough to replace the blood loss, so Erwin gently lowered him to the ground before putting him out of his misery.

There wasn’t any time to mourn fallen comrades, so Erwin, like Levi and the others, went once more immediately into the fray. He swept past Levi towards some outnumbered recruits who needed assistance, while Levi decided to take on several Malform who were climbing an apartment building. Undead bastards were probably planning to drop on those fighting below, so he used a rappelling dart to take the fight to them, tangling two of them in the wire so he could handle the others first. He got a ripped sleeve, a cut to his left cheek and one less wire for his efforts, and five more puddles of goo on the ground.

Casting about for a free wire to use, he was confused when he saw two brown blurs swing past; that wasn’t anything like the Corps uniform. It took him a moment to realize that the two people who just landed on the top of a table and who were leaping at a pack of Malforms as if they were suicidal idiots were the brat and one of his friends, the girl with the red scarf. They’d picked up Corps long blades somewhere along the way and were putting them to use cutting down Malforms as if the freaks had flashing targets on their necks.

Not about to question the assist if it meant less undead freaks tearing into his own people, Levi threw himself back into the battle, determined to kill every last Malform. He didn’t allow himself to feel exhaustion or pain, he didn’t allow himself any remorse or sorrow, he only channeled the fury he felt at each comrade’s death, at every sight of a child’s body lying as if a broken doll on the blood-soaked ground, at every instance he had to kill his own kind to keep the enemy’s number from growing. There were less and less of those wearing grey and white every time he looked up, but there were also less pallid, withered, fang-faced freaks as well.

Sometimes, he swore the only way he knew he was winning was that the red of blood on the ground was slowly being overcome by the brackish sludge of Malforms liquefying. It still didn’t make up for each time he looked at the lifeless or dying face of someone he knew, someone he had trained or was a friend, someone who should have had a long life ahead of them, whose neck his blades sunk into so there wouldn’t be a new threat to face in this awful battle. The number of Malforms were falling, but there was only so many strikes before Levi’s blades would dull and his strength would give out, and this battle was testing the limit of both. A Malform scored a blow to his left arm when he was too slow to block it; anger lent him the speed to strike back and finish it off with a savage, swift swing.

“They’re almost gone,” Erwin’s voice rang out over the com. “One final push and we’ll finish them.”

Levi almost remarked that it was easy for the asshole to say, except that he could see Erwin, face and chest splattered with dark blood, lobbing off the head of a Malform that had just nearly beheaded an old man with one ferocious bite. Instead, he forced himself to lift his arms and to move forward, face sticky with drying blood and muscles screaming from exertion, and found that fucking brat beating him to the Malform chasing down a wounded recruit. Their eyes met for several seconds, his staring into pools of glowing gold while he attempted to wipe away the blood, until the bitch with the scarf pulled the brat away.

“Hange, follow me,” he spat over the com channel as he followed the kids, aware of the two of them heading toward the one of the alleys. From what he could see of the remaining Corps, they had the few Malforms surrounded and well on their way to being liquefied.

“You’re in my sights.” For once there was no snarky remarks from Hange, no nonsense or gibberish. Just the assurance that she would have his back, which allowed him to focus purely on the brown coats fleeing for the nearest exit.

Using up the last of his rappelling darts, he shot forward until he was in close proximity, and then propelled onward with his arms outstretched to knock them both into the ground. He swore that he heard growling sounds from the girl before impact, and chose to ignore it so he could devote his attention to the brat. He pushed up off of the ground and latched onto the kid’s left arm before he could try to run away, aware of Hange landing a few feet behind him.

“You’re not going away, you damn brat,” he hissed out as he held on tight with both hands, startled by the heat he felt which emanated from the kid. “Don’t even think of knocking me out this time, or else I’ll fucking gut you.” The warning seemed to have some effect, as the brat’s eyes became even wider and his expression appeared shocked. He stilled for a moment before struggling against Levi’s grip, but at that point Hange and several other members of the Corps had them surrounded, some of them with their weapons drawn.

“Eren!” the girl with the scarf called out as she neared, the blades in her hands held at the ready, yet a gesture from him made her pause even if she damn near shook as if with the need to do *something*.

The brat stared at Levi, his eyes still wide and his face the innocent mask that might fool some people, sharp fangs nowhere in sight. “What do you want from us?” he whispered, his gaze unwavering from Levi despite the crowd they were gathering.

“Answers,” was Levi’s immediate response as he dragged the kid further from escape. He didn’t know why it was that he was so fixated on this one person – it wasn’t just that the brat had knocked him out, it wasn’t just those eyes… he wouldn’t let him go until he figured it out.

The girl followed as well, until the two of them were surrounded by what remained of the Corps. The brat seemed almost resigned until someone came too close to the girl and then he would flare up, eyes flashing and fists swinging about, while the girl glared daggers at anyone who dared to approach the kid. Levi was about to kick both of their asses to get them to headquarters when Erwin approached.

“What is going on here? We have wounded and worse to deal with, what has you-” He forced himself to the center of the circle and stopped when he found Levi in a face-off between two teenagers. “Weren’t you the two fighting with us against the Malforms?” He asked the question in a soft voice, but from the intent looks he was giving the kids, Levi knew he realized that something unusual was going on here. He stared hard at them for several seconds, his face void of expression, before he looked in Levi’s direction. Then he allowed himself to show a hint of curiosity, but something was off – now wasn’t the time to figure it out, though.

“I want them to come back with us,” Levi explained, the words coming out in a rush. “I think they might have some idea of what’s going on with the fucked up situation here.” He hoped that Erwin would settle for such a simple explanation.

“We don’t know anything,” the girl spat out as she wrapped her arms around the brat as if to protect him. “We merely fought to save ourselves.”

Yeah, right, like your average citizen would have a hope in taking on a Malform and surviving without any special training, let alone a shit-ton of them. Levi didn’t need to look at Erwin, he knew his friend would be thinking the same thing. “You’re coming back with us.”

For a moment it appeared as if the two of them would continue to resist; they pulled back as much as they were able and stilled as if readying for violence, and then a small form pushed its way through the crowd.

“Eren! Mikasa! Are you all right?”

It was the third member of their group, the blond kid who hadn’t been seen since before the Malforms had attacked. Levi forced his hands away from his blades and let the kid join his friends, especially once he saw how they relaxed at the sound of the kid’s voice. He also noticed how Erwin’s eyes narrowed, a sure sign that his mind was plotting something.

The three of them whispered back and forth; Levi caught ‘supposed to get away’ and ‘couldn’t leave without you’. It was all very touching and shit, but the fact remained that the MPs would be descending upon them any minute now and he wanted the kids out of here before then. He stepped forward – only to be stopped by Erwin.

“We need to finish up here, but I want to continue this conversation later.” He motioned for Levi and Hange to step forward. “Take them back to headquarters as our guests.” When the three kids once again tensed as if ready to react, Erwin shook his head. “We just want to talk to you, I promise,” he said while holding up his hands and even smiling, doing his best to come across as friendly. Hell yes, the bastard was up to something.

The brat exchanged a set of significant looks with his two friends, glanced at the Corps still surrounding them and then sighed before nodding, which was all that Levi needed as a sign to haul his ass away. He grabbed tight to his left arm and figured the other two would follow, and could only hope that some good came out of this blood-soaked day.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... and we're gonna switch over to Eren PoV next time. One of those is going to be a flashback chapter to give you an idea of how this whole mess started. Not that we're left at an interesting plot point or anything....


	4. We Will Not Grow Old

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... I swear, these chapters are getting longer and LONGER. o.O All right, so, as promised, we're finally breaking into new PoVs (not that I don't adore Levi). Bit of an overlap here, plot-wise, and the next chapter is a huge jump back in time, but answers/information are beginning to trickle in, as is the real plot (which is more than just 'kill bad things', I promise!).
> 
> Thanks so much for all the kudos/comments, they are greatly appreciated.

As their newest home, it certainly wasn’t much; it basically was one big room, barring the bathroom and a closet, with a minimal kitchen set off along one wall. There were two small beds, a kitchen table, a desk, a few shelves, a couch that looked mostly comfortable and a couple of small end tables – and almost everything was composed in shades of pale beige and white.

“We’ll need to get a screen or two for privacy’s sake,” Armin said as he wandered around the cramped space. “I didn’t think the beds would be such an issue considering your sleeping habits, but I couldn’t find any bigger quarters when I hacked the system.” There was a clear note of apology as he explained, and he was a few seconds away from wringing his hands. Eren didn’t need to look at Mikasa, they both moved to go assure their friend at the same time.  
  
“It’s fine,” he told the worrywart while Mikasa rubbed his back. “We knew that Trost had limited resources due to its popularity. Frankly I’m surprised you found something this, er, ‘big’.”

Mikasa nodded in agreement. “We’ll manage. It’s better than the place in Mosca.”

That made Armin laugh as he reached out to hug them both. “Oh please, don’t remind me!” He shuddered for a moment, the motion exaggerated. “The only reason I didn’t catch any bedbugs was because of you two!” Stepping back, he looked over the place again. “At least it’s clean, and we’ll improve upon it. Pick up some stuff to make it a proper home.”

“Of course! Half the fun of moving someplace new is buying stuff,” Eren agreed with a rueful grin. There was only so much they could carry from dome to dome, so they’d made a game of it over time, what they’d eventually leave behind; Eren and Mikasa only possessed a few precious belongings that had lasted in one form or another through the many years, and Armin had learned from their example. He touched the small leather pouch handing heavy on his chest that held most of the precious items he owned. “We need to go grocery shopping first.”

Mikasa smiled at that, as he’d thought. “Yes, our first meal in our new home.” She went over to investigate the kitchen, opening the few cupboards and poking around until she was satisfied. “There’s enough plates and cooking utensils for now. You did well, Armin.”

“Trost is one of the more organized domes,” he explained as they made their way to the front door. “It’s why so many people want to live here.” Since they’d barely taken the time to check out their new apartment, they still had their coats and shoes on and were ready to explore outside. Mikasa merely wrapped her red scarf tighter around the lower part of her face once they exited the apartment building.

Eren grimaced a little at the stale, recirculated air that always filled a dome, wishing that he was still outside, but smoothed out his expression upon the worried look from his sister. They were here for a reason, he would have to get used to Trost and its artificial environment. It was just that it seemed with each passing year, he grew to tolerate life in the domes less and less. There were too many people, too many senseless rules, too many ingrained customs that kept people from thinking for themselves, from being little more than brainless sheep. They just followed the same patterns day after day, cowed by tradition and the MPs, ruled over by near invisible Chairmen.

“Eren.” Mikasa gave his left arm a gentle squeeze; after so long together, she knew his mood down to its every minutia. He smiled at the near invisible signs of worry she was radiating and leaned in until their foreheads were touching.  
  
“I know, stop spoiling the moment,” he whispered. Before Armin could catch on, he straightened up and smiled. “So, what do we want for dinner?” It wasn’t as if it mattered as much to him and Mikasa what they ate, as they would more or less be going through the motions of it for the enjoyment of the taste alone, but it made Armin happy and brought back some good memories for them.

Armin and Mikasa took the time to consider the question and answered together. “Ragout.” Their agreement made Eren laugh and he linked their arms together as they headed toward a nearby market.

“All right, I think I can manage it as long as they have enough vegetables available.” He refused to feel a stab of pain at the thought of making one of his mother’s recipes - it was amazing at how strong the pain could be after so long - and instead focused on how pleased she would be that one of her favorite dishes was appreciated by his loved ones. “Mikasa, you’re in charge of picking up some wine.”

She tugged her scarf up higher before she nodded. “I should be able to manage that.” Since she appeared the most physically mature out of the three of them, she usually had the best luck. That and her more serious demeanor helped – they all had fake IDs which stated that their ages were a couple of years older than their physical appearance, but there was only so much that they could push and not cause any trouble. If Armin got accepted into Trost University, then he would start aging normally… which was something that Eren didn’t want to dwell on just then.

Armin had done a better job than he would admit in finding an apartment, as there were several markets located within a few minutes of it, not to mention the University itself. They chose one of the smaller ones, eager to just find enough ingredients for dinner and save a proper shopping excursion for another time. While out, Eren saw a couple of Freedom Corps fighters on patrol and a snotty MP who thought she lorded over everyone; Armin dragged him along before he could cause any offense with the arrogant blonde woman. What had happened to the organization that had been created to restore order in a time of chaos? At least the Freedom Corps remained mostly true to their original vision, even if they were being misled by the MPs and Chairmen into thinking that the outside world was still so tainted.

“You’re doing it again,” Mikasa murmured as she shifted the large bag she was carrying from one arm to another. Eren heard the clinking of several bottles and perked up at that – she must have done better than they had hoped in securing alcohol.

He handed his credit chip to the vegetable seller and indicated the assortment of vegetables that he’d picked, a little disappointed in that they were all hydroponically grown but what could one expect from the dome? “Did you think I’d react anyway else?” he asked, more than a little exasperated.

Her brows became furrowed, and then a small but beautiful smile slipped past the edges of the scarf. “True. Some things never change.”

He had to take his credit chip from the stunned vendor and bag his own purchase, but it was worth it to have his sister in a good mood. Their arms linked together, they went off to find Armin, who was busy haggling over a plate of pastries. Their friend grinned when they joined him and finished his purchase of some cherry tarts. “They’re not as good as yours, but I didn’t want you to cook so much tonight,” was his explanation for the buy, his blue eyes bright with mischief.

Eren reached out to tousle Armin’s shoulder-length blond hair. “No, you’ll just come home with a basket of cherries another day and have me bake!” They all laughed at that, familiar with how Eren basically gave in to Armin’s requests, and headed back to their new home. It was a pleasant walk, even if Eren was a little warm with his jacket on, and they took the stairs to the seventh floor rather than the lift; Armin was left a bit out of breath yet he didn’t complain.

Mikasa and Armin unpacked their few belongings while Eren cooked, putting away the clothes that they’d brought with them, along with the precious personal items. Clothes would be the next thing on the shopping list, and knowing Armin, he’d be scouring the pawn shops and markets for any books or old datapads that related to pre-dome or immediate post-dome science that he could find.

The place slowly began to smell like delicious food and the three of them, which helped to put Eren at ease. Mikasa poured the wine and Armin set the table, and while he was busy, she used a sharp claw to slice her finger and add several drops of blood to his glass. Eren felt a hunger pang at the scent of his sister’s blood, a reminder that they would both have to go hunting tonight. He swallowed the flood of saliva in his mouth and turned off the stove so he could carry the pot of ragout over to the table, where a heat pad was waiting.

Armin and Mikasa raved about dinner, with Armin enjoying several bowls along with a good bit of wine, while Mikasa and Eren barely had half a bowl each.  They did have several glasses of wine, even though it would take more of the alcohol to affect them then it did Armin; the liquor helped to calm their hunger.

“Do you really think I can get into Trost University,” Armin asked as he poked at his dessert, a slight slur to his voice from the alcohol.

Not this again, Eren thought with a sigh as he pushed aside his tart and picked up his glass of wine. “*Yes*. You’re one of the brightest people we’ve ever known, and we’ve known a ***** lot* of people.”

Returning to the table with a glass of water, Mikasa took the fork out of Armin’s hand and replaced it with the glass. “Eren’s right. You’re brilliant, and you’ve done nothing but study all these years. They won’t know what to do with you,” she assured him, then urged him to drink.

He took several sips before he resumed voicing his concerns. “But what if I don’t get in? What if they figure out that my ID is fake? You’re sacrificing so much for me,” he said, his blue eyes growing watery.

Eren reached over to smooth his hand over Armin’s hair, much as he used to do when his friend was a small child. “Don’t worry, you’ll get in,” he promised with a tender smile. “Just pass the exam, okay? Don’t worry about our IDs, they’ve held up until now.”

Armin looked as if he wanted to continue arguing, but it had been a long day and the wine was catching up to him. His breath hitched a few times as he allowed Mikasa to lead him over to his bed, and without too much effort he was soon asleep. While his sister fussed over him, Eren cleared the table, put away the leftovers and cleaned the dishes, forsaking the dishwasher to do them by hand; technology was nice, but sometimes you had to stay in touch with the simple things, like cooking and cleaning.

When he was finished, he joined Mikasa at Armin’s bed. He could tell his friend was deeply asleep already, which wasn’t a surprise with how much traveling they’d done the last couple of weeks to sneak into the dome. Mikasa stroked Armin’s bright hair a few more times and then moved a couple of steps away from the bed. “He’s worried about us.” She fussed with her scarf, something she did when she was upset. “He knows you don’t like it in domes, especially big ones.”

What Mikasa was trying not to say was that *she* was worried, too. “I’m sorry.” He reached over to tuck back a strand of black hair that had fallen onto his sister’s lovely face. “I’ll try not to do anything stupid.”

That earned him another one of her beautiful smiles. “As if such a thing is even possible,” she murmured as she motioned for him to join her on the couch, farther away from Armin. “If you haven’t changed by now, I doubt it’ll ever happen.”

“Hey!” he protested, mindful of Armin sleeping not too far away. “When was the last time I did something – oh, never mind.” His shoulders drooped and he slumped into a corner of the couch, which wasn’t too uncomfortable. “You try living so long with Ms. Perfect,” he grumbled.

“That doesn’t explain you going off half-cocked most of the time,” she pointed out as she leaned over to give his left ear a flick. “Anyway, we’re talking about Armin. Is there anyone we know who can help us out,” she asked, all traces of humor gone from her manner.

Busy rubbing his sore ear, Eren gave the question some thought. “Nobody that I can think of – we chose Trost in part because there’s no one around who should recognize us.”  
  
“Drummond?”

That was a possibility… until Eren remembered the last bit of news he’d heard about the hacker. “I think he passed on over a decade ago.”  
  
“Hmm.” Mikasa played with the hem of her blue tunic. “What about Ymir? She usually knows the network pretty well.”

Eren grimaced at mention of their… did they consider Ymir a friend? “I don’t know, she left me a message a few months ago that was rather scary. I think she wants me for something.”

That was all of an explanation he needed to give to Mikasa, as her dark eyes narrowed and a chilly air overcame her; Eren liked to think that he could look after himself, that he was a good fighter, yet Mikasa was in a class in and of herself and anything that he couldn’t finish, she would decimate. And anything that Mikasa was certain to decimate was something she considered a threat to him. “Never mind.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” That was why he hadn’t mentioned the message until now.

They were quiet after that, both of them going over a list of names in their minds that they quickly discarded; there were so few people they trusted with who and what they were, so few who lived with the secret for any length of time. The sad thing was, the trusted ones were felled by time and worse, while those who’d found out and that they avoided… well, they weren’t eager to seek them out anytime soon.

Another hunger pang reminded him that he couldn’t sit here and dwell on the past forever. He shivered and forced himself to get off of the couch while he held out a hand to Mikasa. “Are you going hunting tonight?”

“Yes. Do you want me to wait until you get back?”

He glanced over at a sleeping Armin. “It might be best.” That way Mikasa could get a little sleep herself; they didn’t need more than a couple of hours at a time, so when he returned, he could take his turn in the bed while she went out hunting feeling refreshed. “I won’t take too long.”

“Just be careful.” She leaned in to give him a hug, which he returned, holding her tight.

In another few years, it would more than likely be the two of them again, out in the world. There was a stab of pain in his chest at the thought of leaving Armin behind to make his way in the circuit of domes, yet that savage, hungry part of Eren looked forward to the day when it would be just him and his sister again, the way it had been for so very long.

*******

The night was quiet in a manner that was common to the domes; there was no rustle of the wind, no territorial calls of predators, no rustles and thumps of creatures roaming about as they sought safety or food. The relatively few birds, insects or vermin that flourished in the artificial environment were cautious to venture out at this level and while there were still some humans around, so the most common sounds were the hum of electronics and ventilation along with the occasional human voice.

Eren darted down an alley when he heard human footsteps approaching and began to climb up a building, not in the mood to deal with anybody at the moment. He was still in a foul mood from earlier in the day, his anger simmering from having to kowtow to the bastard MP in the market; the asshole had acted like Mikasa should be begging to have sex with him, and Eren should just stand there and let his sister be insulted? He didn’t care if Mikasa could remove the guy’s spleen with her pinky, it was the *principle* of the matter – his sister was too good to be treated like that. Damn MPs acted like they ruled the world and everyone should be grateful for the fact….

Eren forced himself to take a deep breath and tried to calm down; he knew why Mikasa hadn’t reacted to the insult and why Armin had intervened, and why he shouldn’t let the incident bother him. They couldn’t afford to draw attention to themselves – the best way to affect change was to get Armin into the University and unleash that amazing mind of his from the inside, to let him work from the inside while Eren and Mikasa tracked down Grisha’s work. There was no way that Eren and Mikasa could know that the child they’d saved all those years ago could be so special, that he would take in everything they’d shown him and make it his own, make it even better, but Armin was worth every horror and indignity that they’d ever suffered. He was more than worth Eren coming here and swallowing his pride.

Feeling a little better now, he could focus his attention on why he was out tonight, which was to hunt. He sniffed the air, searching for traces of Malform, and had to go three more blocks eastward before he picked up a scent. The fact that he was spending so much time tracking down prey in such a large, populated dome was a growing concern – normally it only took him and Mikasa half an hour to find a meal, but the last couple of times it was taking almost three times that long. Armin hadn’t found any news of Malform kills on the network, which was equally disturbing. Where were the Malform hiding, and what were they feeding upon?

Eren kept to the buildings as much as possible while he hunted, blending into the shadows with his dark clothes and years of skill. After a few minutes, he caught sight of his prey and paused, waiting a minute to watch it to see what it was doing. It was huddled in a small, dark alley, yet it didn’t seem to be prepared to attack anyone who walked along the main street in front of it. Instead, it just seemed to be curled up and hiding from something.

Puzzled by its behavior but too hungry to wait any longer, Eren crept as close as he could without giving away his presence and then leapt at the Malform. This one must have been a big man back when it was human, as it weighed more than Eren even in its withered state, and it hissed as he slammed it into the concrete ground. Sharp claws bit into his arms and back, sharp fangs snapped at his face, the pain only momentary as his body quickly healed the wounds. He growled back at it while he slammed it several times against the ground with enough force to snap its bones, and while it lay stunned, leaned in to rip out its pale throat.

Hot, viscous blood poured into Eren’s mouth, making him want to moan and close his eyes as his hunger was assuaged. The flavor was so sweet to him, so invigorating, filling him better than any human food could ever do. Gathering the Malform up in his right arm, he used his left arm and legs to climb the nearest wall, seeking a safe place to feed. The Malform struggled against him, claws once more digging at his arms, its escape efforts growing weaker the longer that Eren fed. The savage, monster part of him reveled in its struggle, in the blood that poured into him, in how much stronger he grew with each swallow.

He had nearly drained the Malform when he recognized the sound of footsteps and a sharp, indrawn breath. Looking away from his prey, Eren found a member of the Freedom Corps staring in shock at him, right hand on the hilt of his weapon.

“Shit,” Eren muttered in his native language as he shook his head and dropped the Malform to the ground so he was prepared to fight. He followed the Malform moments later, landing on his feet.

The Corps member continued to stare at him, grey eyes wide in his pale face. Eren stared back for several heartbeats, torn over what he should do; he knew better than to let himself to be discovered like this, yet it wasn’t some random person, it was a Freedom Corps fighter, someone who struck back against the Malform. Deciding that he couldn’t kill the man, Eren burst into action, moving forward with all his speed. He had to push back that savage part of him, to deny it the urge to lash out and kill, and managed to make the blow an incapacitating one instead of a killing one. The Freedom Corps fighter crumbled under it, a muttered curse fading out as he fell, and Eren caught him as he tumbled to the ground. He laid him down as gently as he could while he still felt blood on his tongue, still hungered somewhat; his hands stroked along toned arms and through soft, black hair before he forced himself away.

No, he had to leave before he did any more damage. Drawing one of the man’s blades, he went over to the mewling Malform and in one quick motion removed its head, then used his shirt to wipe the hilt clean and tossed it aside. He went back to the man and pulled back the left sleeve of his jacket, forcing himself to breathe through his mouth so he didn’t take in the man’s intoxicating scent. Dammit, he had just fed, he shouldn’t be affected like this when his hunger was mostly assuaged. It took a moment to figure out how to work a gauntlet while it was on another person, but he managed to fire off a few rappelling darts and wires which he set loose before he picked up the man and then climbed the nearest wall, then fired off one more.

He felt a bit bad to leave the man hanging in the air like that, but hopefully someone from the Freedom Corps would come looking for him soon. All Eren knew was that he had to leave now, before Mikasa tracked him down and came across this; she would kill the dark-haired man without any hesitation if she thought it would keep them safe.

Sparing the man one last glance before he left the alley, Eren hurried away as he scrubbed at his face with the sleeve of his jacket, mindful of his appearance and doing his best to avoid running into anyone on the way home. The good thing about wearing brown was that it usually hid any bloodstains, and he was careful to tug up the collar of his jacket to hide signs of his feeding as he entered the apartment building. Considering how late it was, he didn’t run into anyone on the way to his apartment.

Slipping through the door and locking it behind him, he wasn’t surprised to find Mikasa still awake, but it was unusual to see Armin still up as well, the two of them over at the desk. Armin was busy typing at the computer while Mikasa leaned over him; she looked up at Eren’s arrival and hurried over to greet him. “How was it tonight?”

For a moment he considered lying and telling her that everything had been fine; if there was one thing he had learned over the years, it was that it didn’t pay to try to hide the truth from his sister. Shaking his head, he held out his right hand as a sign to give him a minute as he went into the bathroom to wash his face; he came out a minute later with a damp towel and was wiping it clean as he sat down on the couch.

By then, Mikasa was almost vibrating with worry and almost pounced on him as she waited for him to explain. “I found something to eat, but it took a while. As I was feeding, someone from the Freedom Corps stumbled upon me,” he admitted, his hands twisting the cloth between them.

Even Armin gasped at the obvious importance of what he had just said, but it was Mikasa who clutched his shoulders and gave him a rough shake. “Where did you hide their body?”

Knowing that she would be furious with him, Eren dropped the cloth and reached for her hands. “I… I didn’t kill him.” When Mikasa let out a choked sound, he rushed to explain. “It was dark! I don’t think he saw me very well and I knocked him out! I made sure to stage it so anyone who comes across him will think he killed the Malform.” When all Mikasa and Armin did was stare at him, he tried to explain his actions. “He was Freedom Corps, Mikasa, not some MP or random person. They fight the Malform – we can’t go about killing the only protection people have just to save ourselves.” Over so many years, the Freedom Corps had been the only thing between humanity and the Malform; Eren hadn’t been willing to dishonor that sacrifice.

Mikasa’s face twisted as if she fought some internal battle, and then she leaned in to give him a brief, almost savage hug. “You idiot,” she whispered into his ear, the words saved from being an insult from the obvious love she felt for him. He hugged her back with the same intensity, feeling terrible for the amount of grief he made her suffer.

“Look, if we think that they’re at all suspicious of me, I’ll go hang out in the tunnels for a while, all right? I won’t cause any trouble for you and Armin.” He was serious – he had thought about it the entire way home and was ready to pack a bag and head down there tonight. A few months hanging out in the tunnels wouldn’t be so bad, not if he could come out late at night and see Mikasa.

He let out a yelp when Mikasa gave his left ear a rather painful flick. “Such an idiot.” Before he could protest, she dragged him over to the computer. “Armin and I were looking into why there’s been no reported Malform attacks. We still haven’t found any official reports, but he hacked into the MP broadband and he….” Her voice drifted off and she shook her head, her body becoming tense with concern.

Armin enlarged a screen to show Eren. “I found reports about Malform attacks at the Ragako dome, and that no one’s heard anything from the Utgard dome,” he explained, his face drawn and tone subdued. “Obviously this isn’t on any official channel, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is out in the next day or two.”

Eren felt his knees weaken at the news, and his right hand sought out Mikasa’s while his left pressed over the bag hanging against his chest when the locations sunk in. Over the years, they’d spent a lot of time in various domes: Ragako and Utgard had been two favored safe havens of theirs. They hadn’t been to either of them in over a century, but they still had safe houses in the domes that they could count on retreating to in times of needs. More importantly, it was known among their ‘kind’ that they’d gone to ground at those domes.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence.” He leaned against Mikasa, his head resting on her shoulder as he sought a familiar comfort.

“No, neither do I,” Mikasa admitted in a quiet, dangerous voice as she wrapped an arm each around him and Armin. “This was done either to flush us out or to cut us off.”

For a moment, all Eren could process was the sounds of people screaming and yelling in anger, the terrible feeling of losing everything that mattered to him, the sensation of intense pain, of the world fading away… and then Mikasa was there, holding him close and murmuring in his ear that he was all right, anchoring in the present as she always did with her scent and her warmth, her voice and her strength. He held on with everything in him, with such desperation, because just like that awful day so long ago, he didn’t know what he’d do if he had to go on without her; there were times when her clinginess and mothering drove him crazy, yet she was also what kept him human and sane.

He held on for a few more precious seconds and then forced himself to let go, his left hand once more seeking out the leather pouch. “What are we going to do?” His voice was rough with barely suppressed rage and concern. The thought of all that death and destruction, just to get at him and Mikasa…. “Should we go find out-“

“Nothing foolish!” Mikasa cut him off before he could even begin to voice his thoughts. “The last thing we’re going to do is allow them to force us into a plan of action!” She glared at him, her mouth set in anger, and gave him a rough shake before letting go and leaning back over the desk.

Armin glanced up from the screen and gave Eren a sympathetic smile before he resumed searching for more information. “I agree. For all we know they might have staked out the tunnels, waiting to see if you use them to either flee outside or to go to another of your safe houses if they fail to provoke you into a more… aggressive action.”

“He means you rushing straight to Ragako like an impulsive idiot,” Mikasa mumbled into her scarf.

“I knew what he meant,” Eren snapped, rising to her bait. Dammit, you’d think that after so long he would be able to ignore her barbs…. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that she was his sister and had his best intentions at heart, while Armin grinned in amusement at the two of them. “I just can’t believe that they’d go so far over us.”

It was quiet after that, save for the quick, steady clack of Armin’s fingers on the keypad. Then Mikasa shook her head as if to escape from her thoughts. “Something is definitely going on, between them openly attacking domes and the Malforms being so quiet in this one and two others we’ve identified. I truly believe that they’re trying to flush us out, but other than breaching the dome’s seal, I can’t think of a way to escape.”

At first Eren’s attention was snagged with considering the possibility of breaking out of the dome by one of the official gates, and then he realized what his sister had said about the other domes. “Wait, there’s been a lull in attacks in two other ones?” He glanced back and forth between Mikasa and Armin.

His friend nodded; the glow from the screen making him appear haggard. “Yeah, from what I can tell it’s the same for the Maria and Bern domes.” His face became even more worn, which led Eren to believe that it wasn’t just the poor light casting dark shadows against his eyes.

He rubbed Armin’s shoulders in an attempt to provide some comfort. “So they’re what, looking for us? Planning on something for three of the major domes?” Armin was the best when it came to plotting, while Mikasa had a cooler head than Eren; even before his change, he tended to act on instinct more often than was good for him.

Giving up on searching for information for now, Armin nodded and rubbed his eyes. “Probably a mix of both. I think it fits together somehow with what happened at the other two domes, and if they find you and Mikasa while achieving that other goal, then so much the better.” When his hands fell into his lap, he appeared much older than the seventeen or so human years that he had been maintaining.

Feeling so frustrated that he just wanted to go out and destroy something, to use his hands to rip something apart until it was nothing more than tiny pieces, Eren growled as he whirled around and headed toward the couch; there wasn’t anything in the small apartment that he could break and it was too dangerous to the others for him to go outside, especially after tonight. So instead, he sat down and pounded his fists into the beige cushioning, mindful of his strength, while guttural sounds escaped past his lips.

After a minute, Mikasa came over and knelt in front of him, her hands snatching at his and forcing them to still. “Eren,” was all she said, but it was enough, as was the concern shining in her dark eyes.

“I’m so tired of this.” The words came out hoarse and low, little more than a whisper, past a throat made sore from all the rage he fought to hold back. “For too long they’ve been tearing everything apart. Every time we think we find a bit of peace or try to put it back together, they fucking rip it apart again.”

She wrapped her arms around him and rocked him back and forth; for a moment he was reminded of his mother, of how she used to do this when he was young and tormented with bad dreams or fits of temper. So many years, so many, many years and such a memory could still bring the prickle of tears to his eyes….

“It’ll be all right, you’ll see,” Mikasa promised him. “We won’t let them win. We’ll figure something out, we always do.”

He hugged her back, his hands clenched into fists. They had come here to find the answers that had been left to them for so long, to use Armin to decipher the secrets buried in the past. While there was still some hope of doing that, Eren wasn’t going to rely solely upon that plan now – he was tired of running and looking to the future to do something about fixing their fucked up world. Did those bastards really think they could keep pushing him into corners forever? They were about to see what happened when he fought back in earnest.

*******

“Eren! Your hood!”

“Oh for-“ Eren gritted his teeth together and jerked the hood of his brown jacket forward, obeying Mikasa’s hissed warning even though he wanted to rip off the annoying garment and throw it at her. All that would do would have her chastise him for being childish, when he was ‘much too old to be acting like a spoiled brat’, and make his sister become even more of an overbearing mother hen. There were times when he swore they weren’t so much siblings as mother and child, what with the way she was so determined to look after him, but they were all the other had. He certainly hadn’t been able to let go of her all those years ago….

Face once more obscured by the hood, he followed Mikasa like an obedient dog through the busy market so they could finish their shopping for the day. Armin was occupied with finding the few things he needed for the University entrance exam that would take place in another week, their friend growing more panicked with each passing day. At least the approaching date was distracting him from the issue with the other domes and the too-quiet Malform, even if Mikasa and Eren were worrying about them enough to make up for Armin’s lack.

Spotting a glimpse of grey and white in the distance, Eren twitched the hood a little farther over his forehead and steered his sister toward the right, where there was a table selling some apples. The one Freedom Corps member looked suspiciously short and dark-haired, but perhaps it was just Eren’s paranoia making him think it was the guy from that night. He distracted himself by picking up a green apple, lips turning down at the corners when he reflected on how much bigger and heavier they’d been when he was… well, young.

Mikasa reached over and took it from his hand with a gentleness that let him know she was thinking of the past, too. “Remember the pies that Mother used to make? They were so big and juicy, and the house would smell of them all day.” The lower half of her face was hidden by the knitted red scarf, yet he could tell that she had a sad, slight smile on her face.

He knew that there were people who would do anything to trade places with him and Mikasa, to have a fraction of their lifespan, and here he would give up almost anything to have another day back in their home in Wannsee, to spend it with his mother and Mikasa before the world had turned insane with death and blood. “I think you just liked to see me wearing an apron and covered in flour and spices while I helped Mom. You used to take pictures all the time and post them for your friends,” he teased.

Those memories helped to turn Mikasa’s expression into a genuine, pleased smile, and she picked out several apples that Eren suspected would become tarts or turnovers later. It wouldn’t be the same as when they were children, but if there was one thing they had learned over the years it was that they had to move on and make their lives their own or go insane. Well, more insane. He supposed that perhaps he had been a lost cause in the first place.

They had finished their shopping and were searching for Armin when they caught sight of him running toward them. His hood had slipped back because of his bouncing around, and Eren looked forward to Mikasa chiding someone other than him for once. She reached out to fuss over their friend and his jacket when a loud, enraged roar echoed through the market.

As soon as Eren heard the sound, his body tensed in anticipation for violence; color washed out of the world, leaving it in flat shades of grey except for the glow of living beings, beings for him to feast upon, to bite into and drink deeply from until he was sated. He could feel the teeth push out from his gums, the claws from the tips of his fingers and struggled not to snarl.

“Eren? Mikasa?”

Moving as one, Eren and Mikasa dropped the bags they’d been holding and snatched at Armin as they began to shove their way through the stunned crowd. Mikasa kept her head bowed, probably to hide her now golden eyes, her right hand tugged up the scarf while her left was wrapped firmly around Armin’s arm. “We need to get you somewhere safe.” She spoke with a slight lisp because of the teeth.

“I think I saw a storage room back by the wine table.” Eren shoved a man out of his way with a nonchalant brutality, well aware that any second now, there would be screaming. He wasn’t surprised when the man’s curses at him was drowned out by the sound of a woman’s shrill scream, and was grateful when they came across the door where he’d remembered seeing it. There was a lock on it, from the looks of it keyed to a handprint, but a quick kick broke it. All around them, people were running away to see what was happening, and Eren knew that wouldn’t last for long.

Armin resisted going into the small room at first. “What about the two of you?”

“We’ll manage,” Mikasa assured him. “Stay in here until it’s quiet, and then make a run for it. We’ll clear a path for you.” When it looked as if he was about to argue, she shoved him inside with what appeared to be spare chairs and decorations and gave him one of her infamous cold stares. “When you can heal almost instantly and have centuries’ worth of fighting experience, then you can help us.” From somewhere beneath her jacket, she pulled out a sheathed knife and handed it to him. “Stay safe.”

“You too,” he told her as he accepted the weapon. “Both of you.”

“Barricade the door!” Eren yelled out to him as he shoved it closed, and took the time to push an abandoned table across the doorway so Armin would have a few seconds warning in case a Malform got this far. Now that their friend was as secure as they could manage, he and Mikasa turned to face the carnage.

They could smell the blood and sensed that there were already dead among the crowd; what surprised them wasn’t the number of Malform that had already descended into the market, but that so many of the Freedom Corps had arrived.

Mikasa gasped and sought out Eren’s left hand as they spotted the bodies already fallen, the Malform pulling the fighters from the wires and feasting on the people in the crowd. “This is as bad as that time in Rose,” she whispered.

“Let’s hope it has a better ending. What are we going to do? If we fight like normal, we may be considered little better than Malform.” Things were a little bit out in the open for their usual fighting style of ripping and tearing things apart, which favored darkness.

“You think?” Eren turned to glare at his sister, who yanked him out of the way of a swooping Freedom Corps fighter on her way toward a feasting Malform.

“I have an idea,” Mikasa told him as she tugged him toward a fallen member of the Corps. “You still remember your wire training, right?”

“How do you think I covered up things with that guy from the Corps?” Eren muttered. He spotted several Malform finally headed their way and growled. “Mikasa!” Whatever plan she’d come up with, she better reveal it quickly or else he was about to tear out some throats, a bunch of witnesses be-damned.

She dashed forward and snatched up a pair of long blades that lay near a fallen member of the Freedom Corps in a smooth motion. Still running, she charged forward the Malform, raising the blades in a smooth arc as she leapt and whirled about, decapitating two of them within seconds of each other. No sooner had her feet touched the ground was she in motion again, spinning and jumping as she took out the rest of them.

While she fought, Eren searched about and found a set of blades for himself; the sad thing was that it wasn’t difficult to do, considering the number of dead Freedom Corps fighters scattered around the market. Remember what Mikasa said about the wires, he also pulled off a pair of gloves, feeling a bit guilty over doing so but deciding that he could put them to better use than the poor, headless body could that was lying here.

Now that he and Mikasa had weapons that wouldn’t look too suspicious, they joined the fight in earnest, hunting down Malform on the ground and clinging to the walls. The newly created ones didn’t seem to have developed enough instincts to avoid them and rushed toward their destruction, while the older ones sensed what they were and preferred to deal with the Freedom Corps. It might not be as satisfying as chasing down and feeding upon prey, yet a part of Eren was energized to soar through the air and fight with Mikasa by his side, to know that he was doing something more than just existing for once.

Mikasa was grace personified beside him, twisting and spinning as if she weighed nothing both in the air and while on the ground. It was a good thing he’d given up on feeling jealous and overshadowed by her skill a long time ago, used to the way she mastered everything; he almost wanted to just stand there and watch while she tore through the Malforms.

To his surprise, one of Freedom Corps was just as mesmerizing, the dark-haired man who’d stumbled upon him several nights ago. Eren almost slammed into a wall the first time he’d spied him soaring past, blades flashing before they sliced into a leaping Malform. The man was a talented fighter, making Eren feel clumsy as he hacked away with the blades in his hands.

A Malform screeched its defiance at him and swung its claws at his face; Eren held up his left arm to take the blow, the pain a brief flare that only fueled his anger/strength as he wrenched around, right arm swinging up to behead the creature. Smoke rose from the wounds for a few seconds and then his arm was whole again; he would need to feed within the next day or two, if there were any Malform left in the dome after this attack.

A light touch on the back of his neck startled him, he raised the blades in his hands and spun around to find Mikasa pulling up the hood of her jacket, both of her weapons held in her gloved right hand. “I think we should leave now – the Freedom Corps can handle the rest.”

Surprised to find himself wanting to argue, Eren forced himself to nod in agreement and stepped in place behind her; they may have fought like normal humans, but there would still be uncomfortable questions to be answered if they stayed too long. It was best for them to leave now and make sure that Armin was safe, perhaps try to find a Malform straggler or two and feed. Still, something inside of him was urging him to stay.

They were skirting along the edge of the plaza when a Malform leapt down about a dozen feet ahead of them, intent upon a wounded Freedom Corps fighter who was limping along with a bloody leg. Not pausing to think, Eren raced forward, blades held at the ready, and was lashing at the creature around the same time that another member of the Corps was coming to the girl’s aid. He looked up from the falling Malform in time to realize that the other fighter was the short man from the alley.

They stared at each other for several seconds, long enough for him to realize that the man did indeed recognize him, and then Mikasa had a grip on the back of his jacket and was pulling him away.

Wondering how furious his sister was going to be with him when she found out, Eren allowed himself to be dragged along like a truant child, his mind distracted by the image of that pale, bloodied face. Who was he? Why had he looked almost happy to see Eren?

They were almost at the entrance to one of the side alleys when something slammed into them from behind, knocking both Eren and Mikasa to the hard ground. At first thinking it was a Malform, Eren breathed in deep the scent of sweat, leather, blood and some sort of astringent shampoo as he was yanked onto his feet, his hands scrambling for the blades that he had dropped.

“You’re not going away, you damn brat,” the dark-haired man spat out, his voice hoarse and crackly. “Don’t even think of knocking me out this time, or else I’ll fucking gut you.” Eren was shocked by the amount of venom in the man’s deep voice, echoed in his pale grey eyes. Then he began to struggle in an attempt to free himself, to get back to Mikasa, as other members of the Freedom Corps formed a rough circle around them, several of them holding the long blades in their hands.

“Eren!” Mikasa rushed forward, her own blades held at the ready, clearly only moments away from taking on the entire Corps in order to defend him.

Shit! The last thing they needed right now was for his sister to wipe out the only thing standing between humanity and the Malform. Motioning with his right hand for her to stand down, Eren pushed back as much as he could on the rage and hunger inside of him, relying on the innocent façade that had fooled so many in the past. “What do you want from us?” he asked as he focused his attention on the short, angry bastard, hoping he could trick him again as he had that night.

“Answers,” was the immediate response. Dammit, it didn’t look as if the guy was falling for it this time, as Eren was being dragged further back into the market. Mikasa followed, still ready to rain mass carnage down on the Freedom Corps if they seemed about to harm Eren. He did his best not to resist and trigger that disastrous event – at least, as long as they stayed away from his sister. As soon as anyone approached too close to her, he would pull as far away from the short bastard here holding onto him with a death grip and lash out with his fist.

The stalemate held out until some tall, blond asshole liberally splattered with blood shoved his way through to the center of the circle. “What is going on here? We have wounded and worse to deal with, what has you-” He stopped when he noticed Eren, Mikasa and the short bastard, his expression smoothing out as he stared intently at Eren and Mikasa. “Weren’t you the two fighting with us against the Malforms?”

Eren had a bad feeling about this and tried once more to pull his arm free, but Short Bastard was stronger than he looked; unless he wanted to break the bastard’s hand, he was stuck.

“I want them to come back with us,” Short Bastard said in a rush, just like a little kid trying to explain why he’d done something bad to his parents. “I think they might have some idea of what’s going on with the fucked up situation here.”

Upon hearing that, Mikasa latched on to Eren as if she was his human shield. “We don’t know anything, we merely fought to save ourselves.”

Yeah, and they were certain to believe that, Eren thought as he hugged the arms wrapped around his chest. Yet despite that, he had to wonder if there was a way to turn this to their advantage; Short Bastard wasn’t calling for their deaths, he said he wanted answers. What if that was true?

As if on cue, the man grunted and tugged on Eren’s left arm as if it was a fucking leash. “You’re coming back with us.”

Ready to let Mikasa beat some sense into the rude bastard, Eren pulled back as much as he could so he wouldn’t be caught in the cross-fire. It was then that he heard Armin all out his and Mikasa’s name, and a moment later worm his way through the Freedom Corps to join them.

“Are you all right?”

The shock of Armin joining them at least got Short Bastard to let go of Eren when he went for his blades, which allowed Eren to hug Armin in relief. Grateful that his friend appeared to have emerged unscathed through all of the fighting, Eren released him so Mikasa could hug him next. “What happened? You were supposed to get away!”

“I couldn’t leave without you! Not when I saw you two get surrounded,” Armin explained. “What’s going on? Why are they holding you?”

Mikasa shook her head. “Something about-“

The tall blond guy cut her off before she could explain. “We need to finish up here, but I want to continue this conversation later.” He motioned for Short Bastard and some other fighter, someone with glasses and dark brown hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, to step forward. “Take them back to headquarters as our guests.” When Mikasa once more held her blades at the ready, Blondie was quick to shake his head and hold up his hands in a placating manner. “We just want to talk to you, I promise,” he swore, with what was probably meant to be a trusting smile on his face.

Eren had lived more than long enough to never take a stranger at his word, but he had also lived long enough to know that sometimes, you had to seize a chance when it presented itself to you if you wanted to make things better. Right now their options weren’t good: he’d recognized the roar that had started the massacre and realized that even if he and Mikasa escaped from here, they might be running straight into a trap. So why not do something completely unexpected? That’s what his instincts were telling him to do just then, to fight one enemy by siding with another.

He turned toward Mikasa and Armin and saw the concern and fear in their eyes. While some of it was for themselves, he knew a good bit of it was also for himself. All he could do was give them a slight smile before glancing back at the people surrounding them, sighing and nodding, hoping that they understood what he couldn’t say just then.

If they couldn’t, Short Bastard clearly took that as a sign of his assent and once more latched on to his arm. Biting back on the comment that it would hurt less if the man put a fucking collar and leash on him, Eren allowed himself to be led away, hoping that his instincts weren’t making a huge mistake. One thing he was sure about – if the rest of the Freedom Corps were like Short Bastard here, the signs were clear that they’d make a better ally than an enemy.


	5. The Ghost of You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *whispers* Longer and longer.... Okay, not entirely content with this chapter, but it's necessary. Another Eren PoV, this time the promised flashback that hopefully shed some light on things. Next chapter returns to the 'present' and then the fun can begin.

*******

“-haven’t been home for more than three nights in the past month! You move us here and then you’re never around, I don’t understand why we couldn’t have just stayed in Wannsee if you’re never going to be around.” 

Eren forced himself to stare at his tablet, the English words on the screen blurring before his eyes as his mother’s upset voice rose and fell. He hated it when his parents argued and wished that his father would just stay away if all that happened when he came home was arguments like this, his mother becoming even sadder than when he was gone. Beside him, Mikasa hunched over as if trying to make herself invisible. 

“Because it’s safer here. Just remember to keep the packs nearby like I told you. Now I have to go, the driver is already waiting for me.” There was a shuffling sound and the snapping shut of a briefcase, and the familiar soft scoff his mother made when she wanted someone to know that she was still upset with them. Eren’s father murmured something to her, and a moment later his arms, covered with a tan trench coat, wrapped around Eren’s upper chest. “Look after your mother and sister,” he told Eren as he gave him a quick hug. “Don’t get into too much trouble.” 

“I never get into too much trouble,” Eren grumbled, but his father had already moved on to Mikasa, hugging her as well and urging her to watch over Eren, which she promised to do. Feeling out of sorts that everyone thought he was so troublesome, he sat there in a bad mood until his mother came over to tousle his hair. 

“How’s the English coming along,” she asked, a knowing smile on her lips while he mumbled that things were fine. “Mikasa will be helping you later, yes?” 

He slumped down in his chair and pushed the tablet away. “I suppose.” About to make a snarky comment on how her homework was always perfect, he caught his sister giving him a slight, shy grin and sighed. “It makes the assignment go by faster.” It wasn’t her fault that she was brilliant and great at everything. At least she took the time to help a hopeless case like him. 

“Good. Dinner will be ready soon.” His mother smoothed out his hair, as if it would help any, and returned to the kitchen, the skirt of her yellow and white dress swishing around her legs. “Finish your lessons by then and we’ll do something fun tonight, once the sun goes down.” 

Energized with the promise of a reward, Eren refocused on the day’s lessons, stumbling through the chapter in English thanks to Mikasa’s occasional assistance and then some boring history reading. More than once he wished that he could attend school like normal kids his age, but at least he wasn’t alone anymore as Mikasa was here with him. Taking classes online made the move from Wannsee to Köln easier, too, since there wasn’t any missed classes or new school to attend. 

It smelled as if his mother was making a baked chicken and roasted vegetables for dinner, and she had turned on the tv screen in there while she cooked. Busy with his school work, Eren caught snatches of what sounded to be a news program from time to time. 

“ _-UV levels predicted to be at dangerous highs in upcoming days. Experts advise_ -“ 

“- _homeless reportedly gone missing. Police are investigating, noting that past leads-“_  

“- _tasteless pranks involving cows blood and_ -“ 

“Done!” Eren cried out in relief as he turned off his tablet and jumped up from the dining room table, finished with his lessons for the day. Mikasa laughed as he ran away, through the spacious apartment that their father had insisted that they move into, and followed him to the glass sliding doors that looked out over downtown Köln. He was mindful about pressing against the glass and leaving smudges, holding his fingers a mere breath away from the grey UV coating. “Where do you want to go after dinner?” 

Mikasa stood by his left shoulder and fussed with the ever-present red scarf. “Let’s go to Oldtown.” 

Knowing it was one of her favorite parts of the city, he agreed, looking forward to an evening spent wandering around with his mother and sister. He missed Wannsee, with its lakes and trees, but the streets, shops and river in Köln were fun, too. He didn’t understand why his mother was so upset about the move, and it wasn’t as if their father had been around much the last few years anyway. 

Going to change before dinner so they would be ready to leave right afterward, Eren and Mikasa dressed for the outing: him in a nice pair of jeans and a tan jersey, her in a blue skirt and white blouse. Then they set the table just in time for their mother to serve the chicken and vegetables. She laughed when she saw them and paused to give them both a kiss on the cheek. “My, how mature you look. To think just the other day you were wearing a t-shirt with a toy on it.” 

“Mom! Argon isn’t a toy, he’s a- argh!” Eren flopped down on his seat and gave up explaining games to his mother. “You’re doing it again,” he complained. 

“Yes, son, it’s a mother’s privilege to drive her children crazy.” She smiled in pleasure as she served them dinner. “Now eat something before you tell me what we’re doing tonight – in English.” 

Rolling his eyes at her trick to get him to practice the language, Eren swallowed his food and did as he was told. Maybe he wasn’t as smart as his sister and everyone despaired over his temper, but he knew when to give in to his mother, and this was one of those times. Something about his father had her upset lately, more than him being away so much, so Eren focused on his pronunciation and resolved to cheer her up as much as he could. 

******* 

Growing bored, Eren tossed the game console aside and slid down to lay on the couch; none of his online friends were available to play ‘Blades of Freedom’, and he didn’t want to deal with any idiots if he joined a random match. “What are you doing?” he asked Mikasa as he tilted his head back to look over the arm of the couch.   
  
“A bunch of cars are stopped in the street,” she called out from her spot by the sliding doors overlooking the city.  

“So, traffic’s usually bad this time of the day.” The one or two times their father had been home during the week since moving here, he’d complained about being stuck in it. Eren rolled onto his back and toyed with a lock of his bangs as he wondered where their father was now – was he working at the lab in Leverkusen or had he gone overseas to London? Eren hoped he’d gone out of the country, because that usually meant that he’d bring back gifts. “What do you think he’ll bring back this time? Dad, I mean.” 

Mikasa gave a non-committal grunt and shook her head; after a minute she came over and sat down near Eren’s legs. “I think something’s going on down there, I saw some flashing lights.” She picked up the remote and switched the tv over to cable, then turned on a local news channel. 

“Do you think it was an accident?” 

“Maybe.” Then Mikasa made a hushing sound as the newscaster, some stuffy old guy with a fake tan, began speaking. His voice was high as if from stress and his eyes wide as he went on to talk about some sort of disaster in the downtown area, and how police were encouraging people to remain away from the area if possible. Public transportation such as the trains and buses were being diverted away until the accident was cleared, and people who lived in the vicinity were encouraged to stay inside. 

“Mom!” Eren sat up as he called for his mother, who came out of the bathroom busy folding a clean towel. 

“You don’t have to yell! I swear, the neighbors can hear you!” she chided as she approached the couch. 

“Mom, look at this.” Mikasa turned up the volume as the newscaster basically reported the same instructions over again. Eren watched his mother and waited for her to roll her eyes and say that someone was certainly overreacting, and instead was stunned to see her drop the towel and race into her bedroom. He looked over at his sister and found her appearing just as confused. 

“What’s that about?” 

“I don’t know, but it can’t be good.” Mikasa stood up and went to follow their mother, who came running out of the bedroom with three small backpacks in her shaking hands. She grabbed Mikasa and pulled her toward Eren. 

“Here.” She shoved a pack first at Mikasa and then at Eren. “There’s vests inside, put them on!” Her voice was sharp with fear, the same emotion making her tan skin appear ashen and her brown eyes wide. “Do it now!” 

Not used to seeing his mother so upset, Eren did as he was told and unzipped the pack. Inside was a folded, bright orange square which he assumed was the vest, along with a small envelope, a change of clothes, two bottles of water and a couple of other packaged items. He unfolded the vest and pulled it on, the fabric bright and stiff, and slid the pack over his left shoulder. 

Mikasa and his mother did much the same thing, and once they were ready, his mother paused to pull off her wedding rings, the diamond bracelet their father had given her for an anniversary gift two years ago, and the locket that Eren had always seen her wear. “Here.” She put one of the rings and the bracelet into Mikasa’s pack, and the other jewelry in Eren’s. “Just in case.” 

“Mom! That stuff’s yours!” 

She ignored Eren’s protests and pushed him toward the front door of their apartment. “And it still is, I’m just letting you two hold onto them for me.” Upon opening the door, she paused and peeked out for a moment. There was a loud noise down the hall, a banging sound and faint yelling, which caused her to curse under her breath and pale even more. “Come, quickly and quietly,” she urged them. 

Following her orders, Eren held onto Mikasa’s hand as his mother led them to the emergency stairwell. Instead of going down, as he expected, she went up the stairs, toward the roof. Confused even more over what his mother was doing, he paused on the steps, but one look at fearful expression on her face when she turned and whispered for him to hurry up convinced him to obey. Fortunately, they only had about five flights of stairs to go up. 

Once they were on the roof, she closed the door behind them and then scrambled about looking for something, which turned out to be a scrap of wood that she used to jamb the door shut. “Come away, that won’t hold for long.”  
  
Joining his mother on the middle of the roof, Eren threw his arms up and gestured around them. “What are we doing here? What’s going on?” 

“Quiet!” His mother dug through her pack in search of something, only to pull out a thin, reddish stick. “We’re waiting for help to arrive.” 

They were on top of the roof of a twenty-five story building, where the sharp wind bit into the thin material of Eren’s long-sleeved shirt. Beside him, Mikasa was shivering as well, her loose sweater not being much thicker, and they huddled together as their mother lit what turned out to be some sort of flare. She held it up in the air with her left hand, her right arm draped over Eren’s shoulders as she held him close. “They’ll see it soon – your father promised that he’d send someone to get us if something bad happened.” The light of the flare reflected off of the vests. 

He wanted to ask what that ‘something bad’ was, but soon after his mother had lit the flare they could hear the muffled sounds of screams. Looking over at the door, Eren began to shiver in earnest as the screams grew louder. His mother took to praying under her breath and her arm tightened around him. 

He wished that he’d taken the time to grab something from the kitchen, one of the long carving knives or even a cleaver, his hands clenching into fists. His father had made him promise to leave the knives alone, to never touch them again, but what was the point of such a promise at a time like this? He had only ever done such a thing to protect- 

The sound of a helicopter nearing startled him from those thoughts, and his mother cried out in relief as she pushed Eren and Mikasa farther from the door. They could see the helicopter approaching; it shone a spotlight onto the roof and tracked them within seconds. 

“Here!” His mother waved the flare several times before tossing it aside and shoving Eren and Mikasa in front of her. Behind them, there was a pounding noise on the metal door, which prompted her to impel the two of them forward. “Take them, quickly!” she shouted. 

“Mom!” Eren yelled at his mother, desperate to be heard over the whipping wind as the helicopter hovered above them. He thought Mikasa did the same, saw her mouth moving, and then there were arms reaching down for them to pull them up. 

He twisted about, reached down for his mother, in time to see a wave of something pale move so fast toward her that at first he thought that he was imagining it. Then it formed into arms and claws and twisted faces with dark, gleaming eyes and huge mouths filled with so many sharp teeth, several… several *things* that latched onto his mother just as he’d grabbed her right hand and was trying to pull her up. Her beautiful eyes widened with fear and then she smiled, so sad and heartbreaking, as her hand slipped from his and the creatures pulled her under them. The scent and sight of blood filled Eren’s senses as the helicopter rose into the air, and all he could do was scream for his mother as the warmth of her touch faded from his hand. 

******* 

“Look, they’re switching me to 3/14’s, so you won’t see me for a few days,” Hannes explained, his hands clasped behind his back and a guilty expression on his weathered face. “If you need anything, just go to Dietrich. He’ll help you out.” 

Eren forced a weak grin onto his lips and nodded. “Yeah, okay, thanks.”  

Hannes frowned a little as he glanced back and forth between Eren and Mikasa, who was curled up on one of the room’s two cots, then sighed. “Don’t get into trouble while I’m gone.” He pulled his beret out of the back pocket of his fatigues then turned to leave, his shoulders slumped either from exhaustion or guilt, maybe even both. Eren wasn’t sure what he’d feel guilty about, but imagined that any solider would be exhausted to try to hold back the wave of the mutated bloodsuckers that were overtaking all of the major cities – or ‘malforms’, as the online community had taken to calling them, after some silly old webcomic. Considering the vampires he’d seen on tv and in movies, he could understand why people were calling them something different. After all, the things that had killed his mother didn’t sparkle or wear the latest fashion, or look like- 

“Don’t.”  
  
He came to himself to find Mikasa clutching at his hands, forcing his fingers to unfurl. His palms stung from where his nails had bitten into the soft skin. 

“Sorry.” He leaned forward until their foreheads touched. He felt bad whenever he worried her like this; ever since – it was just the two of them now, so Mikasa had made it her purpose in life to look after him. “Do you want to get something to eat?” 

She shook her head. “Not right now.” She went to the bathroom to fetch a small medkit and cleaned the wounds, which were little more than a scratch. “You can go if you want.” 

It wasn’t that he felt very hungry then, just that he needed to get out of the small room they shared for a little bit. “Okay. If they have any sandwiches, I’ll bring something back.” 

The helicopter had dropped them off at some secret research facility they weren’t allowed to know the name or location of, just the fact that it was a good bit away and that their father worked there sometime. They were only allowed there because of him, given a tiny room to share and two meals a day on sufferance because he was someone important; Eren knew that his father did something with infectious disease and made enough to afford the house back in Wannsee and the apartment, but it wasn’t like he’d been really rich or at all famous. Realizing that the only person who seemed to care at all about them was Hannes, an Army soldier, Eren and Mikasa did their best to keep to their room as much as possible and only ventured out for food and necessities when necessary. Most of the time Hannes brought stuff to them; just because they were nearly  thirteen years old didn’t mean that they needed to be treated like kids, but Hannes had been on the rescue helicopter, so it seemed that he felt some responsibility for them. 

Rolling up the sleeve of his ‘borrowed’ shirt, Eren kept his head bowed as he turned down the corridor toward the cafeteria and didn’t pay any attention to the people in white lab coats who walked past. So he was surprised when someone grabbed him and enveloped him in an almost painful hug. “Eren! My god, I can’t -  you’re-“ 

Realizing it was his father who was embracing him so tightly and stuttering in his ear, Eren stopped struggling and hugged him back as much as he was able, tears stinging his eyes. Ever since he and Mikasa had arrived, no one had been able to tell him where their father was, just that he had left for a very important assignment and would be back soon. 

“Dad… Mom….” To his horror, Eren found himself crying as he remembered his mother and that evening on the roof. He clutched at his father’s back as the sobs wracked through his body, the pain of her death still so fresh and awful. 

“I’m so sorry.” Large hands rubbed along his shoulders and his head as he cried, until the sobs lessened, and then Eren’s father pulled away. “Come along.” A handkerchief was pushed into Eren’s left hand, his right hand held tight as his father led him down the hallway to a section of the facility that Eren hadn’t been before. 

“Dad, Mikasa’s here, too. She’s-“  
  
“I know, Eren. I’ll… I’ll see her later. Right now I don’t have much time.” He spoke in a rush as he keyed open a door and hurried inside, and Eren noticed that his father was dressed as if he was ready to travel again, in a long, grey windbreaker that bore a logo he didn’t recognize, some sort of cargo jeans and sturdy boots. His dark hair was tousled and his face covered with stubble, his moustache uneven.  

Once inside the small examining room, his father urged him up onto the paper-covered bed. “But Mikasa-“ 

His father cut him off once again. “Not now!” He reached into the right pocket of his coat and pulled out a filled shot needle and an alcohol packet. He set the needle aside while he tore open the packet, then grabbed hold of Eren’s right arm and shoved up the overlarge sleeve of his shirt. “Stay still for this,” he ordered, his deep voice rough and low. 

Used to his father giving him shots, Eren found himself obeying automatically, even though he was filled with apprehension over his father’s strange behavior. “What is it?” He and Mikasa had been checked when they’d arrived at the facility and declared in good shape, so why was he getting a shot? “Will Mikasa need one too?”  
  
“Just stay still,” he was ordered again as his father found a vein in his arm and pressed the needle into it. Eren felt a burning sensation immediately and tried to jerk away, yet his father clenched his arm tightly enough to hurt. “Don’t move! You can’t waste any of this!” 

“But it stings!” Eren tried to push his father away and couldn’t – his father refused to stop injecting the shot and with each passing second, Eren’s body felt hotter and weaker. His head started spinning and he felt himself be lowered on the medical bed. 

“Eren, it’s important that you remember this, all right?” His head was lifted and something was slipped over it to hang around his neck. “In case something happens to me, you’ll find everything there. Now, you need to know that you’ll have to trust your instincts, that….” 

The words washed through him, a soft murmur that merged with the pounding of blood through his veins and the heat that simmered beneath his skin. The world seemed so far away and so near at the same time, a white blur all around him, and the next thing he was clearly aware of was Mikasa leaning over him. 

“Eren?” Her face was pale and lined with worry, her long dark hair falling forward as she leaned forward to hug him, a muffled sob escaping as she pressed her face against his chest. 

“Mi-mikasa?” His throat felt dry and his body weak, as if he’d suffered a fever. From what he could tell, he was in the room they shared – hadn’t he been somewhere else? “What happened?” 

Slowly pushing herself upright as if it hurt to move, she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and reached for a bottle of water, which she opened and then gave to him. “You were gone for too long, so I went looking for you. I found you delirious, wandering the halls and brought you back here.” She had to help him sit up to so he could drink. “You’ve had a fever for the past two days. A doctor who checked on you said it must have been brought on from stress.” 

A fever? Was that right? He drank all of the water, feeling so thirsty, and wiped at a trail of water that had escaped past his lips – only to stop when he felt something on his chest. Dropping the empty bottle, he lifted the small leather pouch that he’d never seen before. 

“Did you get that to hold on to things? It’ll be useful.” Mikasa sat close to him on the bed; he could tell that she was trying to act normal, but she must have been frantic with worry at the thought of losing him so soon after- 

Pushing the painful thought aside, he focused instead on what had happened after he had left here, on going out for something to eat… the sensation of heat, of something being placed around his neck…. He opened the pouch to find what looked to be a small metal key with the numbers ‘23’ stamped onto it on one side, and ‘PSD’ on the back. 

“What’s that?” Mikasa twisted around so she could see what he was holding. “Is that a key? It looks like… hmm, like something to a bank deposit box, an old one. I thought most of them used thumbprints now.” She took it from his fingers and he allowed her, mind too busy to resist. “Where did you get this?” 

“Dad.” The word came out quietly, little more than a whisper, yet she heard him, her eyes sharp and expression disbelieving for several seconds. When all he did was stare back evenly at her, she shook her head. 

“We haven’t seen him since before… before we came here. I know you didn’t have this with you then.” 

“No, I ran into him!” Pushing up to sit on his knees, he clutched at her arms as he tried to make sense out of the muddled memories. “He said he didn’t have long and then he did something to me, gave me some sort of weird shot.” He let go so he could rub at his arm where he still remembered the burning sensation; there wasn’t even a mark from the needle. “He said something about it being important in case something happened to him, and… and….” Hadn’t there been something else? Eren tried to remember, but everything was so hazy. 

Mikasa stared at him as if ready to push him back onto the bed, and then studied the key in her hand. “We never thought that he was involved in something as big as this.” Her voice was hushed, as if she was voicing her inner thoughts. “Yet even Mom knew something-“ She bit her lip and took a shuddering breath in an attempt to hold back tears, her eyes pressed shut and the key held clenched in her hand. 

Not wanting to think about their mother and how he’d failed to save her, to pull her to safety, Eren scooted forward so he could embrace his sister.  “We’ll figure something out, we won’t just sit here forever.” Maybe they could help Hannes out somewhere, could stand watch or… or *something*. It would just be until they could fight back those damn vampire things themselves. 

“I know.” Mikasa sniffed and rested her head on his shoulder; the two of them sat like that until Dietrich came to bring them dinner. 

******* 

“Get down!” 

His body reacting on command, Eren threw himself to the ground and covered his head just in time for Mikasa to fire a shot at the Malform chasing after him. Not wasting any time, he staggered to his feet and raced toward it, right arm raised to bring down the heavy Army-issued blade to decapitate the thing before it recovered from the head shot. It took two attempts before he cut through its neck, exhaustion and hatred causing his breathing to come out in shuddering pants as he slammed down the weapon with all of his strength, and then Mikasa was yanking him away from the liquefying corpse. 

“Hurry, there’s probably more of them,” she whispered as she slung the rifle over her left shoulder. 

Closing his eyes for a moment, Eren took a deep breath and then forced himself to move, stumbling for a moment on the weed-covered ground. They needed to find somewhere safe to hole up before sunrise, somewhere out of the blistering sunlight and free of Malform.  

His right hand ached from clenching onto the sword so tightly, his shoulders were sore from carrying the pack containing most of his belongings, and the last time he’d eaten was right before sunset; if he didn’t know that Mikasa felt just as tired and hungry, wasn’t used to being so sore and worn down, he’d spare the breath to complain. Tonight wasn’t any different from yesterday or the day before that, and tomorrow wouldn’t be any better – as long as they stayed alive. So far they’d managed longer than they’d expected after the fall of the research facility, especially after Hannes had been an idiot and sacrificed himself for them. 

Sniffling back tears at the thought of their former guardian, Eren forced himself to pay attention to his surroundings instead; it was dangerous to travel at night, but they lacked the protective gear that would allow them out during daylight. “How many bullets do you have left?” 

“Eight.” Mikasa frowned as she looked over her left shoulder, in the direction of the Malform attack. “I’m hoping we can resupply soon.” 

The trouble with that was supplies usually meant other people, who saw two teenagers and felt they could take advantage of them, or risking Malform nests to gather them on their own. Eren thought that he preferred dealing with Malform, as you already knew what they wanted and could kill them outright. 

They struggled on for what felt to be a couple more hours, nerves on edge at every unexpected sound, and finally came across what looked to be some sort of rest station, the cheerful paint of its exterior fading and covered with rude graffiti. Mikasa immediately came on alert, the rifle gripped in both of her hands and held at ready, and Eren’s fingers tightened around the handle of the sword. If the rest station was clear, they could probably stop for a little while and catch their breath – if it really was clear. 

They had just began to skirt around it, cautious of it already being occupied by other humans or worse, when they heard the sound of multiple steps clattering against dirt. “Run!” Mikasa shouted at him, already turning around to take aim with the rifle. 

“There’s too many of them!” he yelled back, grabbing hold of her torn jacket and using it to pull her along. He’d heard that sound before - dozens of claws dragging on dirt and rocks - and it was when Hannes had thrown his gear at them and ordered them to flee, swearing that he’d give them enough time. No way in *hell* was Eren letting Mikasa do the same damn thing, not the only family he had left – he wasn’t going to lose her. Pulling hard on the dirty fabric, he managed to shove her in front of him, toward the small building. 

The damn things weren’t far behind them, but they were desperate and determined, and so just managed to reach the door of one of the bathrooms in time. Eren almost sobbed when he found it unlocked, and actually prayed that the room was empty. “Go!” he shouted at his sister and shoved her inside, figuring that she was more than capable of handling whatever was in there. About to enter himself, he screamed when something sharp dug into his right side. 

“Eren!” 

He could see Mikasa, could hear her screaming his name despite the agony of claws and fangs piercing into him, yet somehow he found the strength to tell her no as he pushed away from the door and slammed it shut. The last thought he had was if this was how his mother had felt that night, and then it was as if he was being torn apart. 

******* 

“Shhh.” 

Feeling hungry and tired, Eren groaned again and moved his head aside, trying to avoid the damp cloth that was swiping along his forehead. He forced his eyes open to see Mikasa leaning over him, and for a moment thought he was back in the research center – then he realized that her black hair was shorter, that her face was dirty and older, that the room was smaller and dirty, comprised of broken tiles with a toilet and sink, of all things. It also smelled horrible. 

“Wha?” 

Tears streamed down her face as she tugged him up into a bone-crushing hug. “You… you *idiot*,” she hissed at him inbetween sobs.

For some reason he felt so weak, his body unwilling to obey as he attempted to lift his arms to return the embrace. After a few attempts he managed, and it was then that he noticed that the sleeves were missing from his right arm. In fact, his jacket was gone, and from what he could tell, his remaining clothes were torn and rather sticky with… with what smelled to be blood.

“Mikasa?” He went to pull away, but she clung to him as if a leech, still sobbing like she hadn’t done since they’d lost their mother. “What happened?” His last memory had been of his mother, of the Malforms….

“I’d lost you,” Mikasa sobbed against his neck, her scarf scratchy against his skin. “You *stupid* fool, I lost you. They took you even though I tried to fight them off and… and it was *awful*. Then they left you after tearing you apart, and I thought…” She paused to cry for a minute, seeming to be too upset for words. “I thought I’d at least stay with you until... and then you began to heal.”

This had to be a dream, Eren thought as he ran the fingers of his right hand, his *clean* hand, through her shoulder-length hair. “But… I’m fine.” What did she mean that they’d torn him apart? He still had everything, right? All limbs were accounted for and his pack, appearing a bit worse for the wear, was over in the corner, and…. He panicked for a moment, until he realized that he could feel the leather pouch pressed against his chest.

Finally pulling away, Mikasa snatched at his right hand and shook her head. “No, they pulled off your arm and your leg, below your knee when they were fighting over you. But as soon as they all started feeding on you, something made them stop and they left you there. They all left.” Her voice quavered when she recounted the events, as if she was ready to cry again at any moment.

“That’s not possible!” Eren moved his fingers, his supposedly vanished fingers, and both of his feet. “How am I not dead, or worse, turned?”

Her lips pressing together in a sign of anger, Mikasa rose to her feet and hauled him up as well. “I don’t know, but something’s changed in you.” She pushed him toward the broken mirror hanging on the wall above the cracked sink. “Look at your eyes.”

At first he noticed the smeared blood and dirt on his face, and then how much his hair had grown in the past several months; it wasn’t often that he came across his reflection like this. Then he saw what Mikasa wanted him to notice, which were his eyes.

All his life, people had commented on his eyes, about how big they were and their unusual color. Were they teal? Turquoise? Oh, how pretty they were and how they stood out against his skin tone, embarrassing things like that. His mother had fussed over them and bought him shirts to ‘bring out the color’, which only made him more self-conscious about them, which was why in part he always let his bangs grow so long. However, now the familiar blue-green color was gone, replaced by a glowing gold – fuck, his eyes were *glowing*.

That’s when he realized another thing – the bathroom had a skylight to help provide some natural illumination, but with the door closed and a lack of windows, it wasn’t anywhere near enough light for him to be seeing things so clearly. Yet he could see his reflection, the room, Mikasa, *everything* as if it was only a bit dark out. When had his night vision improved to such an extent?

“What’s wrong with me? Am I… am I turning into one of them?” He clutched at the sink for support as his knees grew weak at the thought of turning into the things that had killed his mother and that were wiping out humanity, the things he hated more than anything else.

“*No*, Eren.” Mikasa stumbled over to him and wrapped him in her arms, no sign of fear at all I being near him. “You’d have turned by now if that… you wouldn’t have woken up. We’ll figure this out.”

He rested his forehead against hers and sighed, filled with desperate hope that she was correct. They stayed like that until his stomach rumbled, so she let him go to fetch what remained of his pack.

“It’ll be sunrise soon,” she told him as she handed over a candy bar and a half-empty bottle of water.  
  
“Good.” He wanted to make sure that he could still stand sunlight, especially when each bite of chocolate did nothing to appease his hunger. The water helped, but Eren still felt drained and craved… something. At least he was able to change into cleaner clothes, though they really would need to find a place to restock soon.

As soon as they could tell that the sun was rising, he was careful to unlock and open the door, Mikasa on guard beside him. He didn’t go out very far, just enough to feel sun on his skin and confirm that he could tolerate it as much as he had in the past. A knot that had been strung tight in his chest loosened while Mikasa scolded him to get back into the grimy bathroom.

“The last thing we need is for you to come down with cancer,” she chided as she re-locked the door, but he could tell that she was just as relieved. “Now can we get some rest?”

Feeling bad at how much he had put her through during the night, even if being snacked upon by Malform and miraculously healing had been the last of his plans, Eren gave a tug to her scarf and nodded. “Yeah. I’ll take first watch, since I already got some sleep.” She looked as if to argue, then gave in after a moment.

The day passed quickly, and by sunset, Eren’s stomach was cramping from hunger; the energy bar for ‘breakfast’ didn’t do anything to calm the pangs. Mikasa’s brow was furrowed from concern, but there wasn’t anything she could do for him. There weren’t any doctors they could go see, and if so, what would they say? ‘Hi, I just got attacked by a pack of Malform yet somehow survived and even managed to grow back two limbs, what do you think?’ If the doctor didn’t cut off Eren’s head, they would probably want to dissect him for a cure. No thanks.

Mikasa studied the map provided at the rest station. “If we follow the road, we might find something of interest in the nearest town.”

“Hopefully something of interest is still left.” Eren wouldn’t hold his breath, but one never knew how fast a town or city was evacuated once the Malform had started attacking, or when the solar flares had hit hard. They might get lucky.

His sister gave him a look that clearly read ‘I’ve put up with enough shit lately, we’re bound for some sort of break’. So he merely shrugged and allowed her to lead the way, doing his best to try not to dwell upon how he could see so clearly in the fading light and how his hunger grew with each passing minute. At times, he swore his mouth would begin to hurt and that his sight would go weird, that the world would take on a greyish tinge while Mikasa would seem to glow. Clearly whatever had happened last night had fucked him up more than the obvious ‘dying, coming back to life and regrowing some limbs’ thing.

It was more dangerous to follow a defined path like a road than to cut across country, and now they didn’t have any more bullets left in the rifle because of last night’s attack. The two of them kept an eye out for any signs of Malform and moved as quietly as possible, yet it came as no surprise when Eren heard a screeching sound from a grove of trees ahead and saw a glowing shape leap down toward them.

He acted without thinking – he tossed the sword toward his sister while he launched himself at the Malform. Pain spiked in his mouth and along his fingertips, yet it was almost subsumed by the intense rage and hunger that consumed him just then, virulent emotions that drove him forward without any concern for how he was facing a Malform with any weapon. The Malform screeched again as it slammed into him, claws digging into his shoulders and sending them both rolling onto the ground.

It snapped at his throat, but he managed to roll them around before its fangs could find any purchase. Somehow he had the strength to fight against the creature, to push against its chin to shove its head up and to the side, and the next thing he knew, he was diving forward, salivating mouth open and tearing at its throat.

His teeth tore through flesh as if it was nothing, spitting out leathery skin and tendons and then fastening down so he could drink the thick, hot, *sweet* fluid that pumped out of the ragged hole, so delicious, so fulfilling…. His world narrowed down to that liquid, drinking it in, feeling it flow through him, keeping its source pinned down until there was no more to be had.

“-en? Eren? It’s me, Mikasa. Eren? Please, Eren. Come back. Come back to me, Eren. It’s Mikasa. Come back. Eren.”

Letting go of the Malform, Eren sank back on his heels, his hands rubbing at his eyes as he heard Mikasa plead with him. “I-it’s….” What could he tell her? That it was okay? What the hell had he done? He lowered his hands to see her kneeling on the other side of the Malform, tears sparkling in her dark eyes and appearing too old for the fifteen or so years they were supposed to be now.

“Are you finished?”

It took him a moment to realize that she meant with the Malform, and as soon as he nodded, she pulled out the blade. At first he thought she meant to use it on him and he couldn’t even work up the strength to defend himself, but all she did was cut off the head of the Malform. “Are you better now?”

A strangled, weak laugh escaped him at her question. “I just… I just fucking ate a Malform! I-“ He shook his head and forced himself onto his feet. “I’m not so hungry now,” he admitted, not wanting to lash out at his sister. “But how does this make me anything other than… than one of them?”

She dropped the blade to the ground and leaned over to grab his hands. “You didn’t attack me. Did you want to attack me?” she asked, the question rushed as if she was nervous about the answer.

“No!” He squeezed her hands back as he grimaced at the thought of doing what he’d just done to the one person he had left in the world. “I’ve been hungry since, well, since waking up but it wasn’t until I saw it that I….”

Mikasa smiled in relief and led him away from the liquefying corpse, pausing to pick up the dropped weapon. “Then you’re not one of them – they feed on humans. I don’t know what you are, but it’s not one of them. Plus, there’s the whole sunlight thing.”

He wasn’t sure that he could feel as confident as Mikasa seemed that he wasn’t turning into a Malform. “I don’t know, right now it seems like I’m running on instinct here.” He came to a halt as that stirred a memory, his right hand pressing against his head.

“Eren? What is it?” Mikasa held onto his left arm, her expression growing worried when he didn’t answer. “Are you in pain? Is there another Malform?” She held the sword at ready and looked around as if expecting another attack.

“No, I just remembered something. Back at the research department, when Dad stopped by and gave me that shot.” Mikasa lowered the sword and stared at him, her gaze intent as she waited for the explanation. “He told me something about trusting my instincts when the time came, that they would guide me best.” Dammit, why were his memories so fuzzy, still? “There’s more, but it’s like grasping at smoke. Something… something about passing on the change, being a carrier.”

Mikasa was quiet, as if considering what he had said, and then urged him to continue walking. “Dad was working on something with researching the mutation and spread of vampirism, we found out that much. Considering the fact that they allowed us to stay at the research facility until it was breeched, he probably was one of their best hopes in finding a cure.” She sounded a little uncertain, as if she was thinking things through as she spoke, her chin buried in the ragged red scarf she refused to let go of despite everything. “Perhaps he injected you with something he was working on.”

That theory prompted a bitter laugh from Eren. “Great, he uses his own son for a test subject? There’s better ways of saying ‘I love you’ than turning me into a freak, especially when he wasn’t the greatest dad in the first place.” The man had put his career first his entire life, and what, he decided to do something special for Eren one time? Of course it would turn him into a blood-sucking monster.

His sister looked as if she wanted to say something but thought better of it. She frowned and was quiet for several minutes, which made Eren think that she had dropped the subject. “At least you’re still alive. If he hadn’t of done it, I’d have lost you,” she said in a small voice, her shoulders hunched forward.

Okay, now he felt like a real shit. There wasn’t any way he could hate on his father right now, when whatever the man had done allowed him to survive through the attack and still be with Mikasa; she didn’t deserve to be left all alone in this hell of a world. “You’re right, I’m grateful for that,” he admitted as he bumped into her side. If being a monster was what it took to stay with her, to keep her safe, then he would accept it. At least it meant that the other monsters had a reason to fear him.

*******

Eren eyed the shuttered doors in front of him and frowned. “I don’t know, this seems like one of my stupid plans. It’s not like you, Mikasa.”

His sister wrapped her scarf tighter around her face while she glared at him, bundled up against the autumnal chill in scavenged clothes. “It might not be the best plan, but we need to find some medicine so we can trade it for the necessary supplies. Winter’s coming.”

“I know, I figured that out when the leaves started changing,” Eren snapped back. He hated arguing with his sister, especially when he knew she was right, but this plan *sucked*. First there was the part of going into the abandoned hospital, which he could tell was infested with Malform all the way out here. Even if they did find some medicine or other useful supplies, then they would have to go to an established camp to trade for goods, and the last two times that hadn’t worked out very well. He and Mikasa were still considered easy marks because of their ages, and it didn’t help that it appeared that he… well, he hadn’t aged since the ‘incident’.

Unfortunately, they needed more bullets, better camping gear, some food and new clothes to last them through the winter. Eren found that his new ‘condition’ meant that he could handle temperatures better, but the last thing they wanted was to explain to strangers why he was running around in the snow in jeans and a tshirt, so he was still stuck with a winter coat. At least they only needed food for Mikasa, now.

“Let’s just get this over with. Keep your gun up, since I can smell the bastards from here, okay?” he told his sister as he forced the busted door to open. His teeth ached from the sound of metal grating against concrete, which he was certain let the Malform know that dinner had arrived.

Mikasa let him lead the way, since his night vision was much better than hers. The hospital showed signs of a frantic evacuation – there was rotting linens along the hallways and on the beds, broken monitors at the stations and in the rooms, tablets scattered about…. If there was still working electricity outside of a few rumored generators, the equipment left here would probably be valuable, but it would take a lot of manpower to come here and remove it. Considering that they were saying that over half of the population had been wiped out, Eren wasn’t counting on them moving stuff any time soon.

“Where do you think it’ll be?” he asked his sister as they slunk down a main hallway, on alert for any type of trap.

Mikasa pointed at a sign. “There, pharmacy.”

Hoping that there would still be something there, Eren couldn’t help but notice the bloodstains on the wall and the stench of death. He motioned for his sister to be ready, not liking the feeling he was getting just then. This felt too much like a set-up – Malform didn’t exhibit higher levels of intelligence, but they could probably figure out that if their prey always seemed to head this way, that this was where they should lie in wait for them.

They were coming to a corner when Eren smelled the bastards; he let out a growl the same time he shoved Mikasa behind him, toward a room they had just passed. At least ten Malform were charging toward them, fangs bared in hunger.

His own fangs extended as he leapt at them, a growl breaking free from his throat as he knocked two of them into the ground. The feral sound seemed to stun a couple of them, making them pause and even retreat a little, which gave him the chance to tear out the throat of the first Malform, then slash his claws across the neck of the other. As it fell to its knees, he used his anger-enhanced strength to rip off its head.

Seeing one of their own die slowed down the others. They screeched at him, uncertain of what to do, leaving him the opportunity to slash all the way through the neck of the other wounded Malform. Its death only fed the fury inside of him, made him want to kill more of the bastards, so he sought out the others, lunging for them, sinking his claws and teeth into them, feeling their blood rush down his throat and their flesh tear beneath his hands until they were no more.

Standing in a pool of liquefied Malform, he panted for several breaths before the haze of killing left him and he remembered Mikasa. Running toward the room where he’d last seen her, he almost slipped on more liquefying Malform and let out a roar when he saw one bent over the slumped form of his sister, feeding from her.

He raced forward, claws extended as he drove them deep into the creature to tear at its spine. It let out a screech and slumped to the side, ignored by Eren as he bent over his sister. “Mikasa!”

Face covered with splattered blood, her eyes fluttered open, pupils dilated and unseeing. “Eren?” She could only mouth his name – her throat was torn from the creature’s feeding and she was pale, so very pale and cold. Her heartbeat was slow and unsteady, her eyes drifting shut as Eren clutched her against his chest.

“No!” He couldn’t lose her, couldn’t fail someone he loved again. This was his fault, how could he let her go? He buried his face in her hair, tears streaming down his face as he refused to let her go. She couldn’t leave him.[  
](http://www.dreamwidth.org/create.bml)

He didn’t realize he was moving until he found himself pulling her closer, and part of him screamed in horror as he lifted her torn throat to his mouth. There wasn’t much blood left, only a few swallows, and she tasted different than the Malform, not as sweet. Even as he hated himself for what he was doing, his body kept at it until he felt Mikasa’s heart still and her breathing stopped.

Then he lay her back down and sat back, unable to move away. The wounded Malform had crawled away at some point, yet he sat there, watching and waiting. After a while, smoke rose from Mikasa’s throat and other wounds, leaving unmarked skin in its place. He stared in fascination as it occurred, hope stirring within him. Not too much long after that, her chest began to move, shallowly at first and then she took a shuddering, deep breath.

“Eren!” Her eyes flew open and she clawed at her throat.

“It’s okay,” he told her as he rushed to help her sit up. “I’m here.”

She leaned against him as if she lacked the strength, her arms snaking around his waist. “But… there was a Malform.”

“I know.” He tenderly brushed aside the hair falling onto her face and realized that her scarf was missing – it was a few feet away, torn in several pieces. “I got here too late.”  
  
Mikasa tilted her face to look up at him, her right hand at her healed throat. “So how am I still here?”

Feeling a bit guilty, Eren wiped the back of his hand along his mouth. “I think I figured out that ‘carrier’ part. Something took over and made me bite you.” He was still freaked over drinking his sister’s blood, but if it meant that she was still here, that he hadn’t failed her like he had their mother, then he’d deal with it. “I think… you might be like me, now.”

She continued to look up at him, her hand held at her throat. “Did my eyes change, too,” was the only question that she asked him after several seconds of silence. If she was upset over his failure to protect her or the fact that he’d changed her without her consent, she showed nothing.

There were times when he really couldn’t figure out his sister – this was one of them. A startled burst of laughter escaped him as he hugged her tight. “No, oddly enough they’re still the same.” He gave her forehead a quick kiss. “I’ve always liked your eyes.” Their dark brown color, almost black, was so pretty and suited her, made her appear even more exotic.

She made an odd, pleased sound and rested against him for a few seconds before pulling away. “But I like your eyes.” She stilled for a moment. “I feel hungry. You said you were hungry when you… changed.” As he watched, her eyes changed from their dark brown to a glowing, golden hue, and she let out a startled gasp.

“Let me guess, the fangs came out, huh?” His lips curved into a rueful grin as she nodded; part of him felt a big smug to be the one who had all the answers for once. He forced his sore legs to straighten up and held out his hand to help his sister stand. “I know there’s at least one Malform still around here, how about we track him down so you get a bite to eat and then we’ll see if there’s any medicine left?”

“Yes, that would be good.” She took a step forward and then noticed the scattered remains of her scarf, an anguished sob escaping her as she rushed forward to gather up the scraps.

Really, it was a miracle that the length of wool had lasted this long, Eren thought as he helped her with the task. He’d given her the thing years ago, when they’d first met, and it had lasted through so much – but it hurt him to see her so sad over the loss of the memento, even after so much else. “We’ll find another one,” he promised her as he handed over the pieces he gathered. “I know it won’t be exactly the same,” he said in a hurry as tears gathered in her eyes. “It’s the meaning that counts, right? I’ll find another one and I’ll give it to you. Then it’ll mean the same.” There had to be another red scarf out there in the world, still. If not, he’d take up knitting, just to keep Mikasa happy. Something told him that they’d have the time, now. He was just pleased that she wanted to stay with him, and that such a small token still mattered to her.

She clutched the tattered remains to her chest and nodded while sniffing back the tears. “As long as it’s from you, then yes.” There was a slight waver in her voice, as if she was forcing herself to accept the situation, yet she smiled through the tears.

For a moment, Eren desperately wished they were back in their home in Wannsee, that the world was still normal, that Mom was still alive and there was no such things as vampires or Malform or solar flares – nothing that had destroyed their world and left it so that all that Mikasa and he had were each other. Yet that was their reality now, a world breaking down more and more each minute, the few remaining humans turning on each other and whatever Dad had done that had changed him and Mikasa into freaks. Somehow they’d deal with it, and they would do it together.

“Come on, let’s feed and then get what we need.”

Mikasa’s tentative smile blossomed; she gathered the remains of her scarf into the left pocket of her soiled coat and latched onto his arm as they hunted down the Malform together.

*******


	6. Changes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a while with this chapter, kept going over it again and again as it's basically one long scene. Gah. Good news is we start getting everyone together now! That should help speed things along and get the plot rolling (and help with the Levi/Eren). Hoping to find some time in the upcoming week to get the next chapter out.
> 
> As always, thanks so much for the comments and kudos! They're truly appreciated.
> 
> Just a note - German translations are from online - all I know are some choice swear words so apologies if I screwed something up.

******

Levi kept a tight hold on the brat’s arm as he hauled him to headquarters; there were only so many vehicle permits that were allowed in a dome, and right now all of the ones for the Corps would be allocated to truck the wounded from University Market. That meant that he got the privilege of escorting the brat and his friends back to the base on foot himself, through the streets packed with gossiping nitwits and fawning airheads. Joy oh joy.

“Warum lassen wir uns das gefallen?"“ The girl spat out as they passed several people cheering on their passage.

Weil ich weiß, dass du das Brüllen dort erkannt hast. Diese Arschlöcher warten wahrscheinlich nur darauf, dass wir wegrennen, also macht es doch nur Sinn etwas zu tun, was sie nicht erwarten."" shot back the brat as he tugged at the hold Levi had on his left arm. The words that came out of his mouth were rough and guttural, almost familiar at times in a teasing manner.

"Also gehen wir mit *diesen* Arschlöchern mit? Einer von ihnen hat dich gesehen und ein Anderer verhält sich, als würde er dich erkennen-"

„Oi!“ Levi yelled to cut off their personal conversation. „Speak English or don’t talk at all.“ He didn’t like how they were carrying on their own little discussion, that they could talk to each other so privately or seemed to forget about everything else around them. The girl looked his way to glare at him, which was a huge surprise at this point, while the brat frowned and gave him an unreadable expression.

„Maybe if you start speaking it,“ the brat muttered, his head ducked low and his chin-length, dark brown hair hanging forward to cover his face. Hints of gold gleamed through the disheveled strands, leaving Levi with the impression that the brat was glancing upwards at the top of the buildings as if searching for something. Considering that no one with rappelling gear was left outside of headquarters or University Market, Levi didn’t have a clue what he hoped to find.

The crowds began to thin out as they neared headquarters; perhaps the people were smarter here and wanted to be somewhere better or safer when taking in the fact that a bunch of Malforms had just attacked a public place during ‘daylight’. Levi put the cleared path to use and hurried along, earning a curse from the brat as he stumbled at the quickened pace.  
  
“What’s the matter, you forget how to walk?” Levi jeered at the kid as they made the turn that would take them onto the street that lead to the Corps’ base. 

“No, just not used to being hauled around like a little kid’s security blanket,” the brat shot back, his dark brows furrowed over those remarkable eyes. Levi stared at him for several seconds, temper rising at the implied insult, until Hange pushed the other two brats forward with a nervous laugh.  
  
“Ah, isn’t it so nice to see the two of you bonding already? Now come on, we’re almost home, I’m sure everyone is tired and- well, we’re almost there.” She almost latched onto the girl’s right wrist, but the black-haired bitch gave her such a nasty look that Hange pulled her hand back instead and frowned as if upset at the obvious rejection. 

Glaring to let the brat know that he wasn’t forgetting about that ‘little’ crack, Levi continued on their way, his grip so tight around the kid’s forearm that he could feel the bones digging into his palm even through the clothes and glove. Uncaring if he was leaving a bruise, he dragged him along, pausing only long enough to be scanned into the front gate. There was more muttering from the girl when the gate closed behind them, but the brat remained quiet.  

The main courtyard was filled with medical personnel prepped to receive the trucks which should be arriving at any moment with the wounded, and a few of them nodded at Levi and Hange as they passed. He knew that there would be questions later about the kids, but for now everyone was focused on saving the fallen Corps and then tending to those who had given up their lives in battle – anything else was superfluous. Normally he and Hange would be out there with them, but right now he had the hope of getting some very important answers that might save future lives. 

“Isn’t it going to be cramped in there?” Hange asked when she realized where he was heading. 

“This isn’t a social event, and everywhere else is going to be busy,” Levi pointed as he made straight for Erwin’s office. “Don’t even suggest your lab.” He wasn’t going to put up with its stink and mess, not after participating in a literal bloodbath. What he wouldn’t give to be headed toward the showers right now….

The brat had been rather quiet, the jab at his height aside, but the discussion of where they were going to now had him tense and balk for a moment, his steps slowing down. Levi scowled as he gave the kid’s arm a harsh yank, prompting the kid to jerk forward and into his back. “Keep moving!” 

“Stop treating him like that!” the girl shouted as she rushed forward, her hands prying at his hold on what was probably her boyfriend’s arm. For some reason, that thought annoyed Levi and made him hold on even tighter, to the point that the brat winced and attempted to pull free. “You’re being an asshole! Let him go!” 

“Mikasa! Calm down,” the blond kid pleaded as he joined the fray, hovering near the bitch’s side with his hands waving about as if he was trying to decide what to grab onto. 

“This isn’t helping,” the brat gritted out as he was tugged back and forth between the bitch and Levi. 

“Just let me tear his-“ 

“Hands off, bitch, before-“ 

A loud slamming noise cut off Levi’s and the bitch’s shouting, and they turned to discover that Erwin must have arrived with the wounded. Despite being splattered with blood and wearing a torn uniform, he towered over everyone, appearing in control and ready to take on another Malform attack at any moment. “Is there a problem?” he asked, his voice deceptively quiet. 

Levi used the bitch’s surprise over Erwin’s arrival to elbow her away from the brat. “None at all. We were just about to enter your office.” He could swear that she hissed at him as he shifted his hold to the brat’s upper arm and propelled him into the small room. 

“Yes, it appeared as if everything was completely under your control,” Erwin remarked with a droll tone as he motioned for everyone else to proceed in there before him. Levi shoved the brat into one of the torture chairs and then stood by the door to make sure none of them attempted to leave; the bitch was quick to stand beside the brat as if on guard, while the blond kid sank into the spare chair with a looseness of limbs that equated exhaustion. 

There was an amused smirk on Hange’s face when she joined Erwin at his desk – the crazy bitch was probably loving all of this. Levi settled with his shoulders against the closed door, his hands resting on the hilts of his sheathed blades and his attention divided between Erwin and the brat. 

As if no one wanted to be the one to talk first, everyone was quiet: the kids sat there with their heads bowed and their hands in their lap except for the girl, whose hands were on the brat’s shoulders while she glared around the room in an open challenge, especially at Levi. He glared right back before making a tsk’ing sound and glanced over at Erwin, who was busy typing something on a datapad, thick brows almost forming a ‘v’ from the intense look of concentration on his face. After a minute or so, his expression smoothed out and he leaned back in his wooden chair. 

“So, I apologize but I just realized that there never were any formal introductions between us, were there?” He managed a ridiculously apologetic grin that would have the entire Corps scrambling for cover when the blond kid stuttered out a ‘no’. “Allow me to start – my name is Erwin Smith, Commander of 104th division of the Freedom Corps. To my left is Captain Zoe Hange, and next to you is Captain Levi Ackerman.” 

Levi noticed that the blond kid started a little at his name for some reason while the other two merely sat/stood there as if made out of stone, and that Erwin’s smile increased an infinitesimal amount as if pleased by something. When the silence stretched on again, Levi thumped the hilt of his right blade against the wooden door. “Hey! It’s polite to introduce yourself in return.” 

The blond kid jumped a little in his seat while the bitch amped up her glare even more. “Ah, yes,” the kid stuttered. “Well, my name is Armin Aubert, and my friends are Mikasa and Eren Stieger.” He gestured toward them as he spoke. “We’re, uhm, pleased to meet you?” There was a bit of a question to his voice, as if he wasn’t entirely sure of the situation. Levi pegged him as the weak link in the chain for the threesome.

Regarding the brat and the girl, Levi puzzled over them sharing the same last name; they didn’t look at all alike, as it was clear that she had some Asian blood in her with those eyes and that face, and their skin and eye coloring were totally dissimilar.  Considering that the brat could barely be fifteen years old and the girl was maybe a year or so older, he doubted that they were married. 

Hange must have been thinking along the same lines as she leaned forward as if for a closer look and pointed with her right hand between the two. “So, are you cousins or what?” 

“He’s my brother,” the girl snapped as her hands tightened on the brat’s shoulders in an obviously possessive gesture. 

The brat reached up to pat her right hand. “My parents adopted Mikasa when we… when we were little,” he explained. “I guess you could say we’ve been inseparable ever since.” There was a heaviness to his words, an extra meaning to them, something that made the bitch wrap her arms around his shoulders and amp up the glare at Levi, Erwin and Hange in such a poisonous manner that made it clear that she was warning them away from her ‘brother’ while the blond kid smiled on in blatant fondness over their antics as if he was used to her batshit craziness. What the hell? Levi wanted to pry her off of the brat with an iron bar and hose her down. 

Still, something about the scene was making Erwin very, very pleased. He kept the datapad close to him and rested his elbows on the desk, his chin rested on his intertwined fingers. “So you’ve been in the Trost dome all of your lives?” 

There was a quick flash of exchanged looks before the blond kid shook his head, shoulder-length hair flying about. He smiled, big blue eyes wide, and Levi had to wonder if he put on this sickening ‘cute’ act a lot. “No, sir, we’ve only been here this latest cycle. We came from Karanese before this, and the Mosca dome before that. We tend to move around a lot.” 

Huh, the Mosca dome was just a step or two up from Tartarus; there was definitely more to these kids than met the eye. Levi shared his own significant look with Hange while Erwin made a placating sound. “That doesn’t sound like the easiest life for three young people.”  
  
The brat stirred at that statement and patted the arms wrapped around him to get the girl to loosen her stranglehold. “We’ve been on our own for a while now, as our parents and Armin’s grandfather died during the Influenza outbreak at Ehrmich. We’ve learned to look after ourselves.” He was doing the whole guileless routine as well, golden eyes wide and sparkling and appearing as if he couldn’t harm a damn fly. Too bad for him that Levi had seen him in action. 

Again, Erwin seemed sympathetic in regards to them, as if he was one big softie. Right, and Levi would kiss a Malform – tongue and all. “You’re obviously well-traveled. So what brings you to Trost?” 

The girl, Mikasa, tugged at her scarf as if nervous. “Armin is trying out for the university exam,” she explained, her left arm still wrapped around the brat as if she was shielding him from something. “We really need to go soon so he can finish preparing.” 

Hange clapped her hands at that news. “Ah! No wonder he sniped my books! I’m sure he spends a lot of his time studying.” She beamed at the kid, who hung his head in what looked to be embarrassment, his face turning a bright red shade. 

Erwin waved aside the weak attempt at escape. “I’m sure this won’t impact his studies too much. We still haven’t discussed your very impressive fighting skills.” That remark made the blond kid, Armin, snap his head up while the brat, Eren, tensed in his seat. Mikasa once more took to radiating possessive danger, her arm loosening from around Eren… probably so she could be ready to lash out. Levi’s hands tightened on his hilts.

Acting as if he wasn’t aware of how much he had put the room on edge, Erwin smiled as if amused by something and picked up the datapad. “You know, it’s funny when you say that the two of you are siblings, Eren, and adopted at that. Because as soon as I saw you, I was reminded of another pair of siblings I’ve seen that I must say, you two look an awful lot alike. The most interesting part?” Erwin flipped up the datapad and displayed a scanned photo to the room. “They look exactly like the two of you, give or take a couple of years.” 

There was more swearing in that guttural language and then Mikasa was lunging for Erwin, only to be stopped as Eren wrapped his arms around her waist. “Nein!” he shouted as he struggled to hold her back, and Hange leapt to put herself between Erwin and the hissing girl. Beside the two teenagers, Armin sat huddled in his chair, his face pale and eyes blown wide as in shock. 

Leaving it to Eren and Hange to handle Mikasa, Levi went to better see what had set off the possessive bitch; the photo must have been taken a couple of years ago, when the kids were about twelve or so years old. Eren’s unruly hair was cut short, closer to his head except for the dark brown bangs falling into his eyes, unlike the even, chin-length strands that he wore now. The first odd thing that stood out in the photo that Levi noticed was that Eren’s eyes weren’t their startling honey golden color but an equally unusual blue-green. Then he realized that Mikasa appeared about the same age as her ‘brother’, even though the squalling, demented bitch in front of him was at least a year older. 

Then it sunk in who were the two people standing behind the kids. The woman wasn’t anyone too remarkable, she was more known for the fact that she often cropped up in photos at the man’s side. *He* was the one who was noted in all the scientific articles, the historical footnotes, whom Hange worshipped damn near like a god – Grisha Jaeger. Levi nearly dropped the datapad because his left hand was trembling so much as he scrolled down enough to see the caption beneath the picture: Grisha, Carla, Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman. “What the fuck?” He glanced up at Erwin, who was appearing much too smug at the moment. Was this what had made him snatch up the kids back at the market? 

“Grisha Jaeger,” Erwin said out loud, which made Hange squeal and snatch at the pad, all interest in calming the raving bitch forgotten. “I must say, it’s quite the coincidence that two teenagers, siblings at that, show up looking exactly like his children nearly fourteen hundred years later *and* sharing their names.” 

Mikasa made a futile swipe at the datapad then allowed Eren to pull her into a close embrace. He whispered something that seemed to calm her down, although she continued to glare daggers at Erwin while Eren tucked back the tousled hair that fell into her face and wrapped the scarf that had come loose around her neck. Fuck, she even wore the same scarf as in the picture? Levi hauled Hange’s left arm over so he could scan the photo again – the pattern was different, but yes, the Mikasa there was wearing a red scarf as well. 

“Uhm, if you consider the law of averages,” Armin began to explain, his high-pitched voice trembling nearly as much as Levi’s hand.

“Don’t even try, kid.” Levi cut him off and snatched back the datapad, earning a displeased whine from Hange. “They look the fucking *same*, down to wearing that stupid scarf, except for his eyes. How do you even try to sell that shit, especially when you add your friend here snacking on a Malform and the two of them fighting better than people who’ve trained for years.” 

He hadn’t meant to let the ‘snacking’ part slip out, but the photo had rattled him, as did the sight of Eren just standing there, face blank so as to give nothing away, being so fucking impossible if the shit Erwin was insinuating was true. Hange gasped at the revelation, Armin moaned and he knew he had made it straight to the top of Mikasa’s *and* Erwin’s ‘I’m going to gut you’ list, but the majority of his attention was focused on the brat, Eren. 

Finally, that blank mask began to crack as he let go of his sister; he pushed her to sit down in the empty chair, not moving on until she stayed there. Then he turned toward Levi, those remarkable eyes of his blazing with emotion. “Why should we fucking trust you? Why?” he spat out, his hands clenched into fists and body trembling as if he struggled to contain whatever it was that he felt. “I let you go when I should have killed you for our sakes, we helped you fight the Malform and we didn’t resist when you dragged us here, which we could have.” He leaned closer to Levi, highlighting the inch or two he had to his advantage. “It would have meant more blood, but we could have escaped. We still can. Now, why should we *trust* you?” 

Pissed off when the damn brat was making *him* out to be the bad guy, Levi grabbed onto Eren’s rumpled tunic and used it to haul him in close. “Listen, you little shit, maybe you’ve failed to notice that we just fought a shit ton of Malforms less than an hour ago, and that a lot of my colleagues died while doing so. Something’s going on here – not only here but at other domes, too – and I’ve got this nagging feeling that you, a smart ass who feeds off of those freaks, might have a fucking clue as to what that is. And that was *before* that damn picture.” Holding onto the shirt, he gave it a rough shake to emphasis his words. “The fact that I’m not beating your empty head in for being such an inconsiderate ass is why you should trust me.” 

Then he shoved the datapad into the brat’s face. “Now, how the *hell* do you two look just like Grisha Jaeger’s spawn? Cloning? Someone manage to get a damn cryo-chamber to work?” 

Something about his improbable guesses made the blond kid start laughing, the sound growing louder and more unhinged with each passing second. Armin folded over in his chair, his face once more flushed and tears streaming down his face. “Cl-clones!” he stuttered out amid outbursts. Even Eren seemed to lose some of his anger and became amused. 

Hange coughed into her right sleeve, a slight flush spreading across her cheeks as she pried the datapad out of Levi’s hand with a bit more force than necessary. “Cryo-freezing such a large specimen for an extended period of time is impossible,” she remarked as she flicked her fingers across the screen. “And much of the skill for cloning complex life-forms was lost centuries ago. You might as well try for time-travel as a workable theory, next.” 

“So then the brats can tell us how they’re here.” Levi felt his left eye twitch as he pushed down the urge to stab a blade through the science-obsessed moron. “I don’t care if they shat out a magical lamp and made three wishes,” he muttered as he continued to scowl at Eren. “People’s lives depend on the information they’re holding back.” 

“I happen to agree, so if we could all calm down and discuss this like rational adults, it would be to all of our benefits,” Erwin just had to go and interject in his deep, ‘I mean business’ voice. Levi was certain that if he glanced over at the bastard, he’d be standing there like some image from a recruitment poster. 

"Eren, ich denke wirklich, wir sollten sie einfach töten und -" 

“None of that gibberish!” Levi barked as he shot a glare at Mikasa over Eren’s right shoulder.  “Talk so we can understand you!” He could feel the brat’s body become tense whenever he yelled at the bitch, and looked back to see those huge eyes begin to glow. “You don’t like that? Then behave, the both of you.” He didn’t care if the kid had an inch or so on him and could sprout fangs – this wasn’t a dark alley and he knew what to expect now, so Eren was going down hard and fast if he tried any shit. 

Erwin came over and put his hands over Levi’s as if to restrain him from violence. “I believe that was German they were speaking, and a rather archaic dialect at that. Isn’t it interesting, Eren, that German was Grisha’s native tongue?” He managed to wrench Levi’s fingers free from the brat’s soft brown tunic; once Eren was released, Mikasa moved with inhuman speed to snatch him back toward the wall. So, the brat wasn’t the only one who could move like that, huh? Another interesting little fact was that her eyes, which used to be a shade of brown so dark as to be almost black, were now the same golden hue as Eren’s. 

It seemed that Levi wasn’t the only one to notice that change, as Hange had gasped and yanked out her notebook to begin jotting something down, while Erwin sat back on the edge of his desk. “So, you’re almost identical to the children of Grisha Jaeger, a scientist from almost 1400 years ago renowned for his research into Malforms, you speak the same language that they did, you can fight Malforms as well as some of the best of my Corps and you have a few… unusual features.” Erwin crossed his arms across his chest, appearing to be at ease and deep in thought yet his hands were never too far from his blades. “What are you?” 

Eren stood across from them, his back against the wall with his left arm draped around his sister’s waist in a clear effort to hold her back, his right hand resting on Armin’s shoulder as if in comfort. An angry expression flashed across his face, prompting Levi to prepare for another rant, and then Armin reached up to pat his hand. That seemed to calm him down a little, since he took a deep breath and shook his head. 

“What are you prepared to do if they tell you the truth?” Armin asked, surprising Levi and, judging from their startled reactions, his friends as well since the kid had been mostly quiet the last few minutes, save for the hysterical laughter. “You don’t seem to be giving them much incentive to do so, other than threats.” He narrowed his eyes in Levi’s direction as he spoke. 

Well, so it seemed that the pretty boy had a bit of spine after all. Levi glanced in Erwin’s direction and shrugged, leaving it to him to come up with a suitable response. 

“I would think that everyone would be interested in the fate of humanity when faced with such obvious danger, but I can understand why you would want some assurances for your own safety.” Erwin once again pulled on that ‘you can trust me’ façade that made Levi want to step as far away as possible. “From what I’ve seen, you’ve no interest in harming humans since you’ve taken great pains in protecting your friend and you fought to save the people back in the market,” he told Eren and Mikasa. “Also, I surmise that you’re behind what happened to Levi and the Malform that one night.” The emphasis he put on Levi’s name made it clear that Levi would have some explaining to do in the near future, which would be such a fucking joy, wouldn’t it? “All of that indicates that you’re not an enemy. I see no reason to treat you as one as long as you feel the same about us.” 

“So you dragging us here, holding us captive and having that short asshole push us around is your way of making friends?” Mikasa muttered into her scarf as she continued to send dirty looks Levi’s way, as if she could flay him with her eyes alone. 

Erwin cleared his throat when Levi took a step in her direction to beat the attitude out of her. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” When the two of them continued with their glaring contest, Erwin cleared his throat again. “Now, that explanation? I believe that none of us can afford to waste any time at the moment.” 

Mikasa managed to break off trying to disintegrate Levi with the visual potency of her hatred and disdain to gaze at her brother; after a moment she gave a reluctant nod and bowed her head, a sheet of her shoulder-length black hair falling to cover her face and her once more dark eyes. When Eren turned toward Armin to stare at him for a few seconds, the kid smiled in a reassuring manner before reaching over for one of Mikasa’s hands to entwine their fingers together. 

Eren rubbed both of his hands over his face and then ran his fingers through his hair, tucking the disheveled strands behind his ears. His eyes had stopped glowing at some point, leaving him to appear so young just then – just a tired, scrawny teenager who needed a good meal and a day or two of sleep. “You’re probably not going to believe this,” he mumbled as he rubbed at his left eye, adding to the illusion of being little more than a tired, underfed teenager. 

“Kid, I’ve seen you feed on a Malform, there’s not much I *won’t* believe at this point,” Levi shot back as he joined Erwin to sit on the desk. Something told him that this story wasn’t going to be a quick one. A couple of feet away, Hange made muffled little squeaks and kept writing, all but bouncing on the tip of her toes. 

“Yeah, who could forget that part.” For someone who barely looked old enough to know how to wipe his ass, the brat did sarcasm really well. He leaned against the wall, with his bitch of a sister quick to curl up at his side. “So, we’re not clones, there’s no time-travel involved, and we didn’t sleep for nearly fourteen centuries.” The corners of his mouth twitched as he shot down Levi’s absurd theories. “But Grisha Jaeger was our father.” 

At first there was the obvious bitterness in the way Eren said the renowned scientist’s name along with the word ‘father’, and then it sunk in that the kid had just admitted to being over a millennium old. What… the… hell…. “How-“ 

Hange let out a squeal that he *swore* would render him partially deaf and rushed forward to latch onto the kids before he could stop her. “Really! You knew the great Jaeger?! Oh my- that’s just- there’s so much I have to ask you! You must know so-“ 

Jumping to his feet, Levi lunged forward to grab the lunatic by her ponytail and yanked her away from the ki- the- what the fuck were they? “Oi! Shitty glasses! Calm down before I break out the hose!” 

“But we’re talking about a scientific miracle here! Two of them!” Hange wailed as Erwin wrapped her in his arms and forcibly sat her behind his desk. “I need to knoooow!” 

“Later,” Erwin promised and gave her a pat on the head, his action a bit absentminded as most of his attention was directed toward the- the brats. Armin was huddled on the chair as if terrified of Hange, which was a rather sane reaction, while Mikasa had shoved Eren back against the wall and had taken guard in front of him, her eyes once again a glowing gold and her lips pulled back to show off a mouthful of razor-sharp fangs. As for the main trouble-maker, Eren just looked embarrassed, as if he wanted to find a place to hide. 

“Mikasa, it’s okay. I think the… uhm….”  
  
“Crazy bitch” Levi supplied for him, and snorted in amusement when Eren’s lips twitched in a smile. 

“I think they have her under control,” the brat finished while he made soothing motions along his sister’s back to calm her the hell down. “At least she didn’t try to stake us or chop off our heads.” 

“Noooo!” Hange wailed from her spot behind the desk, once more busy scribbling down notes. “You’re much too precious for that! I want to touch you, to get inside your head, to-“ 

“See, crazy bitch,” Levi repeated as he resumed his seat, reaching back to smack Hange quiet. “Now, how the fuck can you be so old?” 

Eying Hange as if to make sure that she wasn’t about to attack them again, Eren urged his sister to move aside. “Uhm, good genes?” When the pathetic joke only earned him a potent scowl from Levi and put-upon sighs from Erwin and Armin, Eren shrugged and scratched at the back of his head. “No, maybe that’s part of it, I don’t know.”  
  
“I could probably figure it out,” Hange mumbled, and then squeaked when Levi smacked her once more. 

Motioning for Levi to stay where he was when he leaned forward in a hostile manner, Eren shrugged again, as if he was uncertain. “Look, it’s not as if we have all of the answers ourselves, okay? One day the world was mostly normal, except for the fucked up weather. Sure, you couldn’t go outside much when the sun was out, the coasts were flooding and they were dealing with the food crisis, but it wasn’t anything new by the time I was born. Then the solar flares hit and as far as we could tell in hind sight, it mutated an almost unknown population of vampires.” 

“Tell us something that’s not in the history files.” So far, Levi wasn’t seeing the point in all of this. 

Eren scowled at him and jerked his right hand around to indicate himself and Mikasa. “Because it’s *our* history, not some damn file! We lived it! We were there when the attacks first started, we saw our-,” he paused for a moment and clutched at something beneath his shirt while his sister hugged him close, her eyes once more shooting daggers Levi’s way. “It was real for us. We were evacuated to one of the hidden research facilities in Germany where Grisha did some work, and as far as we can tell, it was there that he injected me with something.” The longer that Eren spoke, the flatter his voice became as if he was trying to disassociate himself from the past. 

“Dr. Jaeger gave you some sort of serum? But he never invented a cure,” Hange shouted as she leapt to her feet, boxed in behind the desk by Levi and Erwin. 

“It’s not exactly a cure.” Once again, there was a flash of something dark, as if Eren held something against his father. “He never fully explained what it was to me, and we didn’t find out about it until about two years later, when I was attacked by Malforms. As far as we can tell, I should have died and been revived as one of them, but whatever he put inside of me made me into this, instead.” His hand released whatever it was that it had been clutching and splayed out across his chest. 

Hange shoved her way between Levi and Erwin so she could lean forward. “You’re saying that he invented a serum that protected you against Malform bites? And that it arrested your aging? Eren, you *have* to let me examine you!” she shrieked.  
  
“Damnit, I will *kill* you if you make me deaf, you crazy bitch,” Levi told her as he smacked her back into the chair. “Now stay there before I gut you and be quiet!” he growled out, in no mood to put up with her crap. 

“But Levi, I don’t think you understand the importance here of what your cutie is saying!” Hange was damn near hyperventilating as she waved her notebook about. “Studies on captured Malforms have revealed that their cells are in a constant state of rejuvenation, which implies a… a type of immortality, which is why you have to remove the head to kill them. Any attempt to transfer that trait to humans leads to an infected state that transforms the subjects into Malforms themselves, but only under certain conditions, such as them losing enough white blood cells to no longer stave off the infection.” She made another lunge in Eren’s direction, only to be shoved back by Levi’s booted foot. “Yet somehow, Grisha Jaeger produced a serum that protected his two children, allowing them to retain their humanity while passing on all of the benefits of being a Malform!” She was so giddy at the moment, she was practically dancing in place. “I need to study them!” 

“You need to have your head exa-“ 

“You consider this a benefit?” 

Levi and Erwin turned back to face the brats at the sound of Eren’s cold, furious tone. He had stepped forward from the wall, his eyes once more glowing and fangs peeking from beneath his lips, his hands held up to reveal sharp claws. At his side stood Mikasa, her eyes a similar eerie gold and a dangerous aura radiating from her. “You think there’s an actual *benefit* from watching everyone you know and care about die? From constantly moving on, year after year, changing who you are, being hunted, never having a home?” 

For the first time, Levi could see the weight of the years weighing on the kid, could imagine that he was more than just some teenager and felt sorry for him – for them both. What would it be like to live so long and through so much death and destruction? Behind him, he heard Hange shuffle about and set something down on the desk. 

“I think I would give just about anything to live that long and have the time to learn so much,” she replied, her voice little more than a reverent whisper. “Besides, you weren’t entirely alone, were you?” 

A wave of emotions flashed over Eren’s face at the question, moving too fast to be interpreted, before settling on a heavy weariness that seemed to weigh him down. His shoulders slumped and his head hung forward, his hair falling onto his face. “It’s not as easy as you think,” he tried to explain even as his left hand sought out Mikasa’s right. “At the least, it would have been nice if we’d been a little older before… well, we stopped aging.” 

“We did all right, considering everything,” Mikasa assured him, clasping his hand between both of hers. 

Touching, but this wasn’t getting them anywhere, Levi thought as he shifted about on the desk. He leaned forward and was about to break up the ‘intimate’ scene, but Erwin beat him to it. 

“Yes, I’m sure you did.” Erwin was holding a datapad and typed something onto it. “I’m curious about a couple of things, though. First, Eren said that *he* was given the serum, not Mikasa, yet both of you are standing here. Second, he mentioned something about being ‘hunted’. Who’s hunting you? I would think that if others had found out about you, there would be some record but all I can find about you two is that you disappeared shortly after that photo was posted.” He kept his tone friendly during the questions, careful not to come across like Hange’s deranged scientist manner, yet something still set off the brats. Eren and Mikasa went into that inhuman stillness that Levi was beginning to recognize, while Armin, who had been quiet during the explanation, shifted about in the chair and shot his friends a nervous glance. 

“So which is it that’s making you the most upset, how Mikasa got turned into the un-aging teenage bitch that she is, or whoever’s chasing you?” Levi asked as he rested his hands on his knees, deciding to cut to the heart of the matter. “Or is it both?” He ignored the way that Armin winced and Erwin let out a weary sigh. 

It was clear that Mikasa wasn’t going to be buddies with him any time soon, but he could live with that, especially when he managed to startle such a clueless look from Eren for several seconds. Then the insult began to sink in and he glowered at Levi, thick brows pulled together. “Don’t call my sister a bitch.” There was a hint of a rough snarl to his voice. 

About to say that he called them as he saw them, Levi settled at the warning gesture from Erwin and merely shrugged instead. “You’re not answering the question.” 

What he got was Armin asking another one in lieu of an answer. “Guys, is it possible that they really don’t know about the others?” The kid squirmed about in the chair again, one knee still gathered against his chest. “They really should, considering what’s happening to the other domes.” 

“Armin….” Mikasa drew out the kid’s name in a warning tone, but the cat was out of the bag. Erwin pushed onto his feet, his eyes narrowed in suspicion and his hands clenched at his side as if he fought the urge to grab onto something. The motion immediately had the siblings on guard, which made Levi want to kick his friend for his hastiness. 

“Who are these ‘others’? What should we know?” Erwin took an arrested stop forward, obviously catching himself before he spooked the brats any further. “Look, we don’t mean you any harm, I swear, but we need to know what’s going on before more lives are lost. We’re sworn to fight to protect humanity!” 

Something in what he said, or the fervor in the way said it, seemed to get through to the siblings, as they huddled together and exchanged a few significant looks for a minute. Then Eren sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, making it an even more of a tousled mess. “It’s… complicated.” 

“And dealing with two brats who’ve been alive since the collapse of civilization isn’t?” Levi pointed out with a good dose of sarcasm. This needed to hurry up so he could go wash the stink of battle and Malforms off of him *sometime* today. Still, his comment earned him a surprised grin from the brat, a flash of non-pointy teeth and bright eyes which was… rather pleasant. Huh. 

“Good point.” Eren tucked back a stray strand of dark brown hair and lifted a shoulder in a weak shrug. “So Grisha gave me the serum and I changed after a Malform attack. Not too long after that, Mikasa was attacked and… instinct took over and I bit her before she died of the wounds.” His smile faded and once more the siblings sought out the other’s hand in a clear sign of comfort. “She turned like I did, and we’ve been like this ever since, not growing any older and healing from any wounds.”  
  
Hange scooted onto the desk to kneel beside Levi. “So you both can turn people? Have there been others?” This time she made sure to speak in a normal volume, though she eyed Levi warily as if expecting to be punched at any moment. 

A blank look came over Mikasa’s face, which she hid by tugging up the scarf until it reached the tip of her nose. “I tried once, but it didn’t work. We think that Eren’s the only one who can do it.” 

“Eren?” Hange eyed the brat as if she could devour him whole; Levi would have to watch out that she didn’t haul him back to her lab when his back was turned and chain him up there. 

Eren shrugged again, the habit growing annoying, his eyes focused on his hand clasped around Mikasa’s. “I haven’t tried anyone else. We… well, we don’t trust too many people with what we are, and the ones who usually *want* to be changed are ones that it seems shouldn’t be.” He glanced at Armin and smiled, the expression tinged with sadness. “Then there are those who can do the most good if they stay as they are.” Armin smiled back in kind, a suspicious gleam in his eyes. 

It was a bit of a shock when Mikasa resumed speaking, since it had appeared that she preferred to leave the explaining to her brother. “We spent a couple of centuries doing whatever we could to survive, keeping largely to ourselves. When they started to build the walled communities that became the precursors to the domes, we took advantage of the returning stability but we could never stay in one place too long. It was then that we realized that we kept running into some people that we had seen before.” She paused to adjust her scarf, her dark eyes unfocused for a moment as if she was seeing something that wasn’t there. “A lot of the old stories about the vampires – the antecedents of the Malforms – talked about them as if they could appear as normal. They’d pass for humans, they just couldn’t go out in sunlight.” 

That got an excited reaction from Hange, who crowed as she flipped through her notebook. “Yes! I found some material about them during my research, but it’s rather conflicting. Some notes mentioned them as beautiful, others as if they were bald and had pointy ears, and another that they had diamond-like skin.” She squinted at her handwriting. “Is that supposed to be attractive? Maybe if you’re greedy, I suppose.” 

Levi elbowed her in the ribs to get her back on track. “Let the girl talk, you can go off-topic later.” He nodded at Mikasa so she could continue. “What’s the big deal about vampires? They were all changed into Malforms.” 

Mikasa shook her head, the violent motion causing her scarf to slip down as her hair flew about. “*No*, that’s just it. Not all of them did change!” Levi, Erwin and Hange stared in shock as Mikasa gripped the ends of her scarf with fisted hands and Eren looked as if he wanted to tear something apart. “Somehow, some of them survived the flares! Eren and I found that out when a few of them befriended us – they thought we were like them at first, until they realized we were feeding off of Malforms and not humans! And then….” Her eyes flashed gold and she latched onto Eren’s arm in that possessive, annoying matter. 

“Let me guess, they’re hunting you because you’re not like them?” Erwin prodded after a minute of tense silence, while Hange scribbled like a madwoman. 

“Not… exactly.” Hand clutching at his chest again, Eren let out a slow breath and shook his head. “We think that might have been it at first, that or they wanted to know more about us. Then they came across someone we had trusted, who knew too much about us, and they discovered that I had turned Mikasa and that both of us can exist out in daylight. After that….” 

The latest revelation had Hange thrumming on top of the desk as barely suppressed squeaks and hisses slipped past her lips while she struggled to not shriek in a demented manner; Levi raised a leg to kick her off if she failed to contain them while looking back and forth between her and an obviously shaken Erwin. “Is that why they want you? Because you’re immune to daylight?” Erwin asked, his face pale and deep voice cracking from the shock. Levi didn’t blame him, since it was a huge thing to wrap one’s head around – a bloodsucker who could wander around in sunlight. Being out in artificial light was one thing, but humanity’s last hope against the undead freaks was a time when the solar radiation died down enough and they could leave the domes for good.

Eren ducked his head for a few seconds and then looked over at Armin. “Again, we’re not entirely sure. Maybe they think I can turn people for them, or that I can somehow change them so they’re immune as well. They also know about Grisha, that he’s the reason I’m like this, and they found out that I have a lead on his research, that- OW!” Both Eren and Mikasa dropped down into a crouch with their hands over their ears when Hange finally lost it and let out an incredibly high-pitched scream at that last bit of news. “Is she insane?” 

“She’s fucking dead!” Levi snarled as he kicked her off the desk, swearing that he felt blood dribble from his right ear. 

“Grisha Jaeger research!” Hange raved, completely ignoring the kick to her ribs. “This is incredible!” 

Levi cursed when Erwin hauled him away from the lunatic before he could kick her again. “Hange, go stand in the corner and be silent! Levi, no killing or maiming, all right!” He shoved Levi over to the opposite side of the desk. “Behave, and I’ll forget about the fact that you kept Eren a secret,” he whispered before resuming his spot in front of the brats. 

Grumbling about the blackmail and his sore ear, Levi rubbed the right side of his head and gave Hange one more nasty look before concentrating once more on the brats. Eren was gazing at them as if they were all insane, Mikasa was obviously ready to grab her brother and friend and run away at any second, and Armin appeared amused, of all things. Nice to see one of them had a sense of humor, but none of this was getting him closer to a shower and a cup of tea. “Grisha Jaeger’s research,” Levi snapped, his patience well past worn thin. “What about it?” 

Glancing at Hange as if expecting her to attack again, Eren pressed his right hand against his chest, where Levi just noticed was a slight bulge as if a hidden pocket or bag was there. “Yeah, before he vanished, Grisha gave me a key to a safe deposit box to a bank in Koln.” When Levi continued to stare at him as if that was supposed to mean something, he sighed and shook his head. “It’s buried beneath the Shiganshina dome. We’re pretty sure it’s his research material in there.” 

This time it was Erwin’s turn to swear. “You’re telling me there might be a possible cure to Malforms, or at least a way to keep people who’ve been bitten by them from turning into new ones, and it’s in one of the first domes overrun by the creatures?” he asked, voice tight with anger. 

“That’s about it.” Eren slumped back against the wall in what seemed to be exhaustion. “The asshole wasn’t really clear with his instructions when he gave me the key, and it took a while before I understood everything he told me. By the time Mikasa and I were in any condition to retrieve whatever it was that he left behind, construction had already started on the initial dome. We’d check back occasionally to see if there were any ways to access the underground, but there were too many humans about back then.” 

“Not to mention we were left with the issue of what would we do with the information once we retrieved it,” Mikasa added as she rubbed a hand up and down Eren’s arm. “If it contains data on creating another serum, then we might be turning it over to people who will only ensure that the rich and powerful will be able to live long and healthy lives.” The way she was eyeing Erwin made it clear that she wasn’t certain if he belonged in that group or not, despite her brother’s decision to tell them the truth. “Or it might fall into the hands of the others, who would use it for their own species and wipe out humanity. We’d given up all hope until we ran into Armin, the only person who rival’s Grisha’s intelligence.” 

Armin’s face turned a bright red and he laughed, the sound nervous and a bit high. “Well, I can only hope to live up to their expectations.” 

“You will,” Eren assured him as he reached over to tousle his hair. “That’s why we came here, to get him into the University. Once he finishes a formal education, Mikasa and I were going to Shiganshina to find the box, then give him the information. If we have it in our hands, we can control what’s done with it.” He gave Erwin a defiant glare as he spoke. “There’s no way we’ll let it be misused.” A hint of fangs peeked out as he spoke, a clear warning that put Levi on edge.

“That’s… a very admirable plan, and one that I – and the Freedom Corps – can fully support and ensure is followed per your wishes.” Erwin placed his right hand over his heart as he spoke. “So you think these ‘others’ that you told us about, the true vampires, are behind the attacks at Ragako and Utgard?” 

Both of the siblings nodded. “We’ve a bit of a past at those domes, and if we were in trouble, we might head there.” Mikasa glanced at her brother, who stood there with his jaw clenched in evident anger. “The last few years, we’ve been rotating through the major domes, so we think they hoped that we would come to either here, Bern or Maria as one of our next choices. If they could cause enough problems, they would flush us out to the open and we wouldn’t have any place to go to ground.” Judging from the way her eyes flashed gold, Levi would say that Mikasa wasn’t the type to run and hide.

Anger built inside of Levi, an urge to take his blades to someone and render them unrecognizable. “Are you saying that these shitstains basically wiped out two domes and caused what happened today just to get at you? That they’re getting ready to do the same to two other domes as well?”

Eren’s anger faded, replaced by nervousness as he eyed Levi with some concern. “It might not all be about us, we don’t know everything about them and what they’re trying to do, but… yeah?”

So many members of the Corps dead, along with so many humans, all because some undead freaks wanted what this brat could do, what he could get his hands on…. Levi strode forward and grabbed hold of Eren’s tunic again to pull him in close, their faces almost touching as he stared into those mesmerizing eyes. “Then I’m not letting you out of my sight.” He ignored Mikasa’s enraged hiss and gave the brat a harsh shake. “I keep you, then that means they bring the fight to us.”

“You don’t get to *keep* my brother, you little bastard!” Mikasa hollered as she snatched at his hands, only to be pulled back by Armin.  
  
“No! This might- this might actually work, us working together!” the kid insisted as he put himself in front of her as if a rather suicidal barrier. “At least, it’s better than us being on our own!”

As for Eren, he continued to stare back at Levi, his expression stunned at first and then slowly smoothing out. “Mikasa, he’s right – they’re both right.” He reached up to pry Levi’s fingers from his shirt, frowning a little at the effort it took. Levi released him with a huff but didn’t back away much. “It won’t do us any good to stand on our own this time, and I think we both could use some help.”

“That’s *if* we can trust them,” she spat as she danced around Armin to come to her brother’s side, shoving Levi away once there. Levi nearly took a swing at her, but his arm was caught by Erwin.

Eren’s smile to her for that comment was a touch condescending, which caused her to recoil slightly and hang her head. The smile was still in place as he glanced around the room, at Erwin, Hange and finally at Levi. “I think it’s a little too late for that,” he explained, his right hand once more pressed against whatever it was he was hiding beneath his shirt. “We let them bring us here for a reason, and I think this is it.  We have to stop running at some point.” He let go of whatever it was it was and reached out to fuss with his sister’s scarf, this time his expression tender, more open. “Say you’re with me on this.”

She looked up at him and after a few seconds returned the smile, hesitant at first. “You know I always am.”

Levi was once again spared having to break up the touchy-feely shit by Erwin, who stepped forward to clap his hands on each of the siblings’ shoulders. “Then I think it’s best that we have you join the Corps – it’ll explain why we brought you to the base and why we’re keeping you here, where you’ll be under our protection.”

“We’ll assign you to my squad.” Levi gave Erwin a warning look that he wouldn’t be challenged on that decision, to which his friend nodded after a moment’s consideration.

Hange let out a muffled groan as she left the corner and thumped her notebook onto the desk. “But I wanted them! How can I study them if you’re making them do drills all day long? That’s not fair! Erwin, tell Levi he can’t have them both!” she whined, a pout on her face as she threatened to throw a datapad in Levi’s direction. “The meanie. He just wants the cu-”

Erwin snatched the datapad to safety and pushed the lunatic away from his desk. “You’ll be assigned Armin, and give him a better training than the University ever would.” He turned toward the stunned kid, who looked as if he’d just been handed a death sentence. “Truly, Hange is a brilliant scientist, I’m certain that the two of you will get on well,” he tried to reassure Armin. “She’s been studying Grisha Jaeger’s work for years.”

“Just think of the fun we’re going to have!” Hange hurried from around the desk to go over and latch onto the poor kid, who was sending pleading looks Eren and Mikasa’s way. Considering that they had just gotten out of being the insane bitch’s full-time lab rats, all they did was give him sympathetic glances and tried to shift further away.

Judging that there’d been enough answers for now and that the brats weren’t going anywhere, Levi wasn’t going to spend any more time covered in sweat, dirt and Malform blood. “Erwin, I’m sure you’ve a million things to do now, so I’ll get these three settled in.” He snagged Eren’s right arm while the brat was distracted, and figured that the other two would follow. “Let’s go,” he ordered him when all Erwin did was nod in acknowledgement and headed for his desk.

“Hey! Where are we going?” Eren attempted to dig in his heels, but while he might have the height advantage, he definitely didn’t have the mass to go along with it. Levi yanked him off of his feet with ease and dragged him through the door and into the hallway, with Mikasa, Armin and Hange not far behind.

“You can’t keep doing this!” Mikasa insisted, right on Eren’s ass. “What gives you the right to treat him like that!”

And here Levi thought she was the brat’s sister, not his mother. “Did you miss the part where you joined the Freedom Corps? You answer to me now, so that means I have every right,” he shot back over his right shoulder, a slight, pleased grin on his face as she glowered at him.

“Muh-maybe it’s not a good idea to make him angry,” Armin stuttered out.

“Maybe he should stop treating my arm like it’s a damn leash!” Eren attempted to pull his arm free again, and let out a yelp when Levi tightened his grip. “Come on! Where are you taking us?”

“To your new quarters. Seriously, do you have a brain in that head of yours or did it turn to dust from old age?” Levi sneered at the brat and resumed heading toward the living quarters of the base.

“But we already have a place to live! What about our stuff?” Eren’s free hand scrambled at Levi’s for a few seconds while he muttered in that other language beneath his breath. “Are you even listening to me?”

“We’ll send someone out later to collect your belongings. Better not be anything disgusting there, like old people porn.”  
  
“Oh, Sie steuern Arschloch – Mikasa and I need to feed soon!” Eren yelled, his voice rougher than it had been a moment before. Levi turned to look at him and noticed that his eyes were once more glowing. “Will you have someone else do that for us, too?”

He stopped in the hallway and used his hold on Eren to pull him in close, until they stood only centimeters apart. “First, you will *not* talk about that when there’s a chance anyone other than myself, Hange and Erwin is around, understood,” he hissed out, struggling to keep quiet in case someone walked by even though he was furious by how clueless the brat was acting just then. “Second, you’re my responsibility now, and I’ll take care of it. You’ll go with me on a patrol later or something.” He’d have to talk to one of his personal squad, someone he could trust, and have them tag along.

Hange, who had been hovering nearby, let out an excited moan and jumped up and down several times. “Oh! Let me help! I *have* to see them eat! Please, Levi? *Please*!”

Feeling a headache coming on and just wanting to get to his quarters where it was clean, quiet and lunatic-free, Levi pinched the bridge of his nose and took several deep breaths to prevent himself from killing someone. “Fine, you can help.” She could handle Mikasa, because right now he’d reached his limit of shit that he was going to take for the day. “Now, one more word from *anyone* and my foot will be so far up your fucking ass that you’ll taste leather. Is that clear?”

Armin appeared ready to sink into the floor and disappear, Mikasa was once more trying to flay him alive with glares alone, while Eren must think he actually looked scary when he glowered like that. Yet all three of them nodded when Levi repeated the question. Hange, happily lost in a scientific daze, was sent off to get the brats their new uniforms while Levi shuffled the Corps’ newest recruits toward the showers.

One thing was certain – if it really had been his bright idea to leave the fate of humanity in the hands of two teenagers, Grisha Jaeger was a fucking moron who had a lot to answer for, in Levi’s opinion.

*******

Rough translations:

Why are we putting up with this?

Because I know you recognized that roar back there. Those assholes are probably waiting for us to make a run for it, so it only makes sense to do something they wouldn't expect.

So we go along with *these* assholes? One of them saw you, and another act likes he recognizes-

Eren, I really think we should just kill them and -


	7. Beginning To See The Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gah! These chapters aren't supposed to keep getting longer each time! o.O This one starts multi-PoV since there's now too much going on to devote chapters to just one person, and we'll get viewpoints from others than Levi and Eren now and then. Not sure if I'll be able to have something up by next weekend as the upcoming week will be busy, unless maybe I post another flashback chapter.

*******

Eren struggled with the urge to lash out at Short Bastard – Captain Ackerman – to make him release the hold on his arm and stop dragging him around as if he was an unruly child, reminding himself that this was what he’d gotten himself *and* the others into by following his instincts. He had to hope that he’d made the right decision, that he’d done something to strike back for once instead of running away. It was just difficult to believe that he’d made the right choice when he wanted to rip out a certain rude, short asshole’s throat just then. 

“So, do you do this to everyone or am I just special?” he found himself unable to hold back as he was dragged around another corner. 

He got a sneer for his curiosity as Captain Ackerman came to a pause in front of a door marked with a symbol for falling water and what appeared to be unisex facilities. “You’re a special pain in my ass is what you’re are. Now get in here so you’re not a foul-smelling one at that.” He used his hold on Eren to whip him into the shower room ahead of him. 

At least he was free of the short bastard, Eren thought to himself as he rubbed his sore forearm, the bruises already healing. About to ask just what he’d done to rate the special status, he caught Armin’s pleading look and let out his breath in a huff that blew aside the bangs falling onto his face. Don’t let the puny, narrow-minded bully get under your skin, he told himself. Imagine Mikasa stringing him up by his entrails. You’ll both be dancing on his grave soon enough. He’ll be dust and forgotten and another bitter idiot will take his place, though maybe not this short….. “What, are you going to show me how to take a shower, too?” 

Armin muttered what sounded to be a prayer under his breath while Mikasa gave Eren a disgusted look as if she couldn’t believe that he was deliberately antagonizing a rabid animal. As for Captain Ackerman, the man stared back at him for several seconds through narrowed eyes. “If you’re too stupid to have learned by now, then I’m not wasting my precious time on you.” 

It was just then that the crazy woman – Captain Hange – arrived with an armful of fabric. She came to a sudden halt and glanced back and forth as if picking up the tense atmosphere in the shower room. “Uhm, okay, were there inappropriate jokes about dropping the soap or something?” she asked with a shaky smile.

“No, but I just turned down a lewd proposition,” Captain Ackerman told her with a bored tone as he began to sort through the clothes, his back to Eren and Mikasa.  
  
“Oh, you wish!” Eren had to be quick to grab Mikasa as she lunged for the delusional bastard, half-tempted to let his sister have at it after all she’d been put through so far. Instead, he had her under control by the time the asshole turned around, a suspicious frown on his face. 

“Here, take these.” The short captain shoved bundles of clothes, towels and washcloths at the three of them. “Women bathe on the right, men on the left. Is that going to be a problem?” he demanded to know, another sneer lurking beneath the surface of that bored expression that seemed to be his default when Eren was concerned. 

“Yeah, because there’s so many private bathrooms around after the collapse of civilization,” Eren shot back, his voice thick with sarcasm as he was careful with the clean material. “We barely went a day without bidets and hot water.” 

Instead of a sneer, Captain Ackerman graced him with what was becoming his second expression of default – a scowl. “You’re a fucking smart-ass, brat.” 

“It takes one to know-“  
  
“Let’s go get clean!” Armin all but shouted as he tore a page from Captain Ackerman’s book and dragged Eren off to the left to take a shower, along a long corridor of clean walls set with white tiles. “Mikasa, we’ll meet back here, okay?” 

All right, so Short Bastard got under skin, Eren admitted to himself as he allowed Armin to lead him far enough away from the two Freedom Corps fighters, toward the back of the showers. Once they were suitably alone, he took great pleasure in removing his torn, bloody and dirty clothes; he was grateful that no one from the Freedom Corps had realized that not all of the blood that he and Mikasa were wearing had come from the Malforms. Their wounds were long-since healed and they’d brought up their healing abilities, but it would be beneficial to keep the entire extent of that ability to themselves just in case this alliance fell through. 

At least the Freedom Corps base used real water for their showers, even if it was recycled waste water judging from the carbon scent; Eren still remembered with immense distaste the times in the early domes when the only choice had been chemical showers and how they were among the few things that could drive his sister into a full-on rant. It had gotten so bad that they’d abandoned the domes for a few decades and clung to the outskirts, hunting lurking Malforms at night, preferring the solitude and occasional lack of meals to their preserved dignity. 

“What are you thinking about?” Armin asked, busy scrubbing at his skin underneath the nearby shower as if determined to rid himself of the outer layer.  
  
“Oh, just that it’s nice not to be stuck with chemical showers.” Eren grinned when his friend’s eyes went wide and he did a quick search of the immediate vicinity, as if to make sure that Mikasa hadn’t overheard the dreaded phrase. 

“And here I thought you might have more important thoughts in that hollow head of yours,” Armin grumbled as he splashed some water Eren’s way. “Like what about this current situation.” 

Glancing back to where he was certain Captain Ackerman and probably Hange were waiting for them, Eren judged that they were far enough away that the two couldn’t overhear them. “Eh, I think Mikasa would have *our* heads for discussing anything without her.” At Armin’s weary sigh, he shrugged and swiped back his now clean hair. “I think… this is why I wanted us to go along with them. It’s like you said – maybe it’s time to stop being on our own.” Armin was good at seeing things that Eren and Mikasa often overlooked, what with his different viewpoint on things. They often took the long view, saw things with the perspective of what would be there in the long run, whereas even with his enhanced youth, Armin had a human lifespan. There was also that brilliance going for him – Eren had to wonder if the changes wrought by his father’s serum, by having to fight for survival for so many years had made other fundamental changes to him and his sister. You wanted to win a fight? That was Mikasa’s specialty. Unpredictability? Eren had that covered. Meanwhile, Armin was definitely their best hope for strategy, which was why Eren hadn’t battled his way free when both his instincts and Armin’s intellect had indicated that they should trust the Freedom Corps. 

Armin ducked his head, a blush spreading across his cheeks that had little to do with the heat from the water.  “Just because I think something’s a good idea doesn’t mean you and Mikasa should risk your lives on it.”  
  
There were times when Eren wished that his young friend had a bit more faith in himself; he realized that it couldn’t be easy, being raised by and living with people who were so much older than him, but they had done their best to instill what confidence they could in Armin, to never make him think that they found him lacking in any way. The truth was, they needed him as much as he needed them, and for more than just his intelligence. If anything, they had come to realize just how far from humanity they’d gotten once they’d taken him in as a child. “Considering that you’re right in this with us, there’s worse ideas we could follow. Such as mine.”  
  
That earned him a weak laugh then they finished their showers in silence, mindful that Mikasa and probably Captain Ackerman were waiting impatiently for them. In the communal locker area, they dressed in the outfits that Hange had brought them, Armin blushing again at the clean underwear which turned out to be a decent fit along with the white pants and grey jersey-like shirts that Eren assumed were the more informal version of the Corps uniform. There were even small kits so they could brush their teeth before heading to meet the others; he handed the shaving materials in the small plastic bag to Armin, long used to the fact that he’d never age to the point where he’d need them.

His damp hair tucked back behind his ears and the pouch containing the few things he couldn’t risk losing safely tucked beneath the grey shirt, Eren indicated to Armin that they were ready to go. They could hear Captain Hange prattling on about something now that the water was turned off, and as they approached, it turned out to be the crazy scientist explaining to Mikasa that she’d arranged for the three of them to spend the night in an unused captain’s quarters. “-think it would be best since we still need to get you settled in. Tomorrow we’ll start your training, so you can meet everyone then. But for tonight, get some rest and adjust to everything, all right? You guys have to be tired.”

“Thank you, Captain Hange.”

“Oh no! Just call me Hange, everyone does.”

Dressed in the same outfit as him and Armin, her black hair tangle-free and her scarf wrapped around her neck, Mikasa skirted around Captain Ackerman as if to keep temptation safely out of reach and joined the two of them. “What we need most is to feed. Armin is the only one who really sleeps.” She brushed the fingers of her right hand along Eren’s left arm before taking position between him and Armin, her attention fixed on the two captains while she waited for their reactions to her politely phrased demand.

Captain Hange let out an excited squeal at that revelation and made an arrested motion for the notepad tucked into the waistline of her dirtied pants before the short bastard elbowed her in the side. “Look, we’ll have dinner sent to the room but we’re not taking you out tonight,” he snapped. When Eren was about to argue with that, he made a curt motion with his right hand. “Right now, all of those shitstain MPs will be crawling around the dome, trying to act as if they have everything under control. Everyone knows it’s the Corps who fight against the Malforms, but they do this act every time there’s an attack, and tonight won’t be an exception.” He shifted his glare to Mikasa, and scoffed when she gazed at Eren and made a slight nod in acknowledgement; it pained them both to admit that the bastard was right. “We’ll go out tomorrow, when things have calmed down.”

“All right,” Eren agreed, more than a little surly. “But it won’t be wise to wait much longer than that.” They’d both been injured during the fighting since they’d had to act ‘human’, which meant they needed blood to replace what was lost and to recoup expended energy.

Captain Hange lost her excited demeanor and folded her arms over her chest. “What do you mean, ‘it’s not wise’? Are you a threat to the Corps?” Beside her, Captain Ackerman’s hands dropped to his blades.

Well, nice to know how far they were trusted, wasn’t it? Eren could feel his sister tense at his side, ready to tear into the two at any hint of a true threat. “No, we’ve never attacked humans unless they’re proven themselves a danger to us first, but the hungrier we get, the… more obvious it is what we are,” he tried to explain.

Armin pushed himself forward, in front of them, and held up his hands. “I can attest to that. They’ve never once harmed me or made me feel threatened in the entire time I’ve known them, and there’s been plenty of occasions when food’s been scarce. We just think you don’t want the rest of the Freedom Corps to see them walking around snarling at everyone, their fangs and claws out and their eyes all shining,” he said in a rush.

Her posture relaxing, Captain Hange let out a loud guffaw and slapped a scowling Ackerman on the back hard enough to knock him forward. “Aw, that sounds like Levi in the morning! I doubt anyone would even notice!”

“Fuck off, you shitty glasses!” he yelled at her as he shoved her away, but at least his hands were away from his blades. “Now show these damn brats to their room so I can take my own shower.”

 She might be crazy and obsess a bit too much about his bastard of a father, but Eren thought he just might like Captain Hange a little. He glanced at Mikasa and smiled, feeling like this might actually turn out all right. 

******* 

Levi has just settled behind his desk with a freshly brewed pot of tea when he heard a knock at his door. Worried for a moment that it was Erwin, he relaxed a moment later when he recognized Hange’s distinctive knocking pattern. “Get in here,” he ordered as he relaxed back into his chair. 

She made a show of opening the door slowly and peering from behind it as if expecting something to be thrown at her. “I don’t know, is it safe to enter?” When he tsk’ed in annoyance and blew onto the surface of his tea to cool it, she raised an eyebrow then sauntered into the room, all lanky legs and a cocky smile. “You were on a tear there, earlier today. Wash off some of that bad attitude along with the stink?” she asked as she dropped into the chair set in front of his desk without a care for manners or proper alignment of the spine. Fuck, it hurt just looking at her. 

“I wasn’t ‘on a tear’,” Levi grumbled as he set his cup of tea aside. “I was-“ 

“You called one of our newest recruits a bitch, you hauled that poor kid around like he was your disobedient puppy, I got more roughed up from you than I did fighting Malforms and I think you used your grumpiness quotient for the entire week in about an hour.” Hange ticked off the items along her fingers as if going through a report. “This tops the Maria incident, which is something I *never* thought I’d say.” 

“It’s something you never were supposed to,” he gritted out between clenched teeth. They had all promised to move on from it, dammit. “So what, you want me to come over there and kiss it to make it better? Dream on, I’ve seen your quarters, no way am I touching you.” 

Hange pressed the back of her right hand against her forehead in a dramatic manner. “Oh drat, my clever plan has been foiled again. How am I ever going to get you to fall into my ample bosom and realize that you are my one true love?” She laughed when he started gagging over her foolishness. “Aw, as if you’d ever swing my way – especially when your cutie is just down the hall.” A predatory grin settled on her face as she shifted to lean forward in the chair. 

He picked up the tea cup and used it to gesture at her, mindful of its hot and precious contents. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you using that word earlier today – you’re getting your ass kicked in practice this week.” It was a good thing that the brats were too shook up from Erwin’s tactics to pick up on it, or else Mikasa would have probably gutted Levi and Hange before running off with her darling brother. 

Hange waved aside her impending date with a hard surface with surprising ease and cackled. “What I find so interesting is that you don’t seem to be objecting to the ‘your’ part.” When Levi blinked at her in shock, she cackled again and leaned back in the chair. “Yeah, I thought so.” 

Taking a sip of tea to help settle his jumbled thoughts, Levi let the delicious, hot beverage wash down his throat before he tried to speak again. “Look, I found the brat, so-“  
  
Hange cut him off with a lazy wave of her hand. “We don’t have the time to get into this.” It wasn’t often when she dropped the easy-going, smiling exterior and let that ruthless, utterly focused side of her come through, but Levi knew to pay attention when she did. “I want to know what we’re doing with those three moving forward, and if you’re going to keep being such an officious prick like today.” Her eyes, behind the glint of her glasses, were calculating and distant, as if examining a specimen and not a friend. 

He rested back in his chair and held his cup against his chest, its warmth soothing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told her in a flat tone, his eyes narrowed as he stared back. 

Her demeanor relaxed a little, becoming less cold but still retaining some distance. “Look, today was as fucked up as it can get, I understand. We lost some good people, there were a lot of deaths and not all of them were at the hands of the Malforms. This job can suck at times.” She held up her own hands as if searching them for signs of blood. “We’ve been under a lot of pressure since hearing about Ragako and Utgard, waiting for the ax to fall, so to speak. Then comes along Eren and his friends, who seem to have a good bit of the answers we’ve been bleeding out trying to find.” 

“Yes, and I had *every* *right* to push that brat and his bitchy sister to get those answers!” Levi drained his tea and almost slammed the cup down onto the desk before he remembered in time just how fragile it was. He set it down with care and then let out a slow breath, then pressed his trembling hands against the desk. Tension he didn’t realize that he still possessed, not after standing so long in the hot shower, in coming back here to his clean, quiet quarters and changing into clean, *non-uniform* clothes and partaking in his ritual pot of tea…. Perhaps Hange had a point. Ever since hearing about Ragako and Utgard… no, the stress had been building longer than that. They had been going for so long without any clear hope of winning, had been losing so many good people…. And along came this brat who shook up his already fractured world. 

“Want some?” he asked as he poured himself another; he didn’t wait for Hange’s curt nod, just reached into the top drawer of his desk to pull out a clean cup so he could prepare one for her as well. “So you’re saying I was a bit of an asshole,” he remarked, voice utterly dry as he handed the tea over to her. 

That earned him a faint smile as Hange accepted it. “If by ‘a bit’ you mean ‘complete’.” She sighed and sunk back into the chair, careful not to spill a drop of the tea. “You were effective, I’ll give you that – you and Erwin both. Maybe it ended up working to our favor as it showed them how driven you were to find out what’s going on, to get the information we need. But you can’t keep going on that track, Levi, not if we want to earn their trust. Try to think like them for a moment – they’ve lived *so* long. You have to respect them for that and for the fact that they’ve decided to open up to us, to risk the secrets that they’ve kept hidden for so many years and from so many people that it’s more than second nature to them.” 

“Like drooling over then as if they’re precious lab rats is any better?” His jab earned him a dramatic wince which Hange tried to hide behind a sip of tea. “Yeah, I thought so,” he muttered with some smugness. 

“Oh, all right, so I have to work on a few things myself.” She appeared chagrined for a moment before she resumed being serious. “Even if it sounds like Grisha Jaeger was a major bastard for what he did to his own son, using him as a test subject against his will, the man was brilliant. Excuse me for being excited for the chance to work with his projects.” She appeared to think about something as she drank some more tea. “Now, what are we doing tomorrow?” 

Wishing just then that he could shove his friend out of the room so he could go back to enjoying his tea in peace, Levi rubbed his forehead and let out a slow breath; Hange could be a meddlesome bitch, but she was right in that they needed to figure this shit out. “While you take the kids to breakfast, I’ll gather my personal squad together for a private chat.” He knew he could trust Petra, Olou, Erd and Gunther with the truth, and judging from Hange’s nod, she did as well. “You spend the day with Armin finding out how much he knows about Jaeger’s research, while I’ll go through basics with Eren and Mikasa. Then we’ll split them up at night to take them feeding.” At least the brats had agreed to wait one more day for things to calm down enough to risk that. 

As expected, the ‘feeding’ part brought a glimmer of excitement to Hange’s eyes, yet she remained focused on figuring out a suitable plan. “Just so you know, Moblit’s reported that there’s already some rumbling from the troops about our latest arrivals. We weren’t the only ones to notice them fighting at the market.” 

He tsk’ed at the thought of idiots gossiping before another sip of tea. “Nice to know that they can multi-task.” Setting the cup aside, he leaned forward to rest his elbows on the desk and propped his chin up on his left hand. “So, I assume that you’ve a story in mind to tell them?” There had to be a point to this, as well as the slight, pleased grin tugging at the corners of Hange’s mouth. 

“Well,” Hange drawled until Levi began to scowl. “You might say that I was inspired by the fact that you and the lovely Mikasa share the same last name.” She laughed when he snorted in disdain over that fact – like there weren’t several members of the Corps who didn’t have a surname in common. “Despite the fact that so much time’s passed and there’s no way to tell if you’re related, you must admit that you two share certain similarities, such as a pissy attitude, impressive fighting skills and an interest in a cutie with one of the finest asses I’ve seen in years.” She cackled when Levi threw one of the datapads stacked on his desk at her, catching it with ease. “In all seriousness, it’s the second item that we’re going to exploit,” she explained as she set the datapad back on the desk. 

“How so?” 

“I really do think we can get away with claiming her as either a distant relative or the daughter of an old friend of yours that you happened across at the market.” Hange once more became perfectly serious as she met Levi’s gaze. “We don’t give out much of an explanation, we just say that you know each other and that’s why you brought her and the others here. Let them fill in the blanks, since they’ll come up with a better story than we ever could. Just let them think that you two have a past in common and it’ll be enough to distract them from the truth.” 

The idea had merit – the few members of the Corps who had been around long enough knew that Levi would go out of his way for anyone he felt was his responsibility, and the brats – at least the siblings – had a feral enough air to them that it wouldn’t seem impossible for them to have spent time in Tartarus and picked up their survival skills there. “So that handles covering their sudden arrival.  Do you seriously think we should integrate them with the rest of the Corps?” 

Hange finished her tea then stared into the empty cup as if it were one of her old books. “I don’t think we have a choice – it’ll raise suspicions if we keep them separated any longer than tonight, and it’ll be for the best in the long run. They’ve probably been isolated too long, Eren and Mikasa. It’ll do them some good to be around normal people.” 

“Yeah, until the sister freaks out over someone getting too close to her precious brother,” Levi pointed out with just a *touch* of sarcasm. 

Looking up from the porcelain cup, Hange stared hard at him for several seconds, her expression inscrutable. “You know, you weren’t helping at all with your attitude back there in the office.” 

He snorted as he picked up his cup of tea by the tips of his fingers and settled back in his chair. “I think you’ve got that backwards – you mean *she* wasn’t helping the situation with the way she overreacted. Must’ve been hell to live with an over-possessive mother-hen for so long.” 

A disapproving frown slowly settled upon Hange’s face. “You really don’t get it, do you?” When all he did was stare evenly back at her, she sighed and rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses with her left hand. “Imagine having everything taken away from you: your home, your security, your hope for the future and almost everything and everyone you love.” The knowing glance she gave him before resuming her study of the tea cup told him that she was aware that he had some experience with what she was describing, and part of him was furious with her bringing up his past like this. “Imagine that it gets so bad that you’re actually on the brink of death – and a horrible one at that - and then there’s one person who saves you, one person who brings you back and gives you a center for your life.” Her expression became bleak for a moment as she stared deep into the cup, searching for something that he couldn’t see. “The loss and the devastation goes on, but that person is still there, still your center, still giving you something to hold on to while everything else is utter shit.” She finally looked back up to him. “Can’t you understand that’s what Eren is to Mikasa? Hell, I barely know those two and I can see it plain as day. I haven’t gone through all that she has, but I know I’d do anything for you and Erwin. What I can’t comprehend is living like that for so *long* and how much stronger her emotions must be as a result.” 

She leaned forward to set the cup on his desk. “And then *you* come along, all bad attitude and threats, and you think she’ll just meekly stand there while you harass the center of her world?” She made a rude noise and rolled her eyes. “Puh-lease. If anything, she showed remarkable restraint today.” 

He wanted to say that he hadn’t been as much of a shitty jerk as she was implying, but the words died in his throat. Instead, he thought back to how defensive and furious he had been when Erwin had forced him to join the Corps, how certain he’d been that he, Isabel and Farlan- “I can’t afford to baby them because they’ve had a long, shitty life,” he spat out, the words harsher than he intended due to suppressed emotions. “Too many lives are at stake.” 

“I know.” Hange appeared exhausted as he felt just then, her mouth opening and closing several times as if she struggled for words. “I guess… just try to think a little before you react. You’re usually good at that, when you’re not pushed to the breaking point like we all are right now. We needs those two, and people tend to look up to you for all that you’re a prickly, foul-mouth bastard.” She managed a smile, one that grew stronger when he made an obscene gesture in her direction. “And those are your good qualities, Sweetie.” 

“Why I put up with your shit, I’ll never know,” he mumbled before he finished off his now cold tea. 

“Too many blows to the head is my guess.” She slumped back in her chair and closed her eyes, appearing ready to fall asleep at any moment. “So you’ll go easy on them tomorrow?” 

“No.” When she jerked upright, ready to bitch him out, he held up his hand to shut her up. “I’m gonna kick them into shape so they’ll do the Corps proud and no one will question why they’re new recruits assigned to my squad, but I won’t give them any more grief than I would another newbie,” he promised. “If the girl starts up with her ‘mine, mine, mine’ crap, I’ll count to ten and just imagine kicking her in the head.” It would be difficult but he’d put up with worse. 

“Yeah, well try to remember that the ‘girl’ in question is a hell of a lot older than you, so that technically makes you the child in this scenario.” Hange seemed to derive a great deal of pleasure in pointing that fact out. She paused in the middle of standing up and stared off into the distance. “I wonder how we must come across to them, with our ‘short’ lifespans and limited world views.” 

Wanting the pest gone, Levi just shrugged before he rested his head against the back of his chair. “You’re thinking about this too much. They certainly seemed liked kids to me. Maybe the change did something to freeze more than just their bodies.” 

Hange gave him an odd look then merely shook her head as she rose to her feet. “Guess I’ll see you at breakfast then.” She paused as if to consider something. “Do they eat breakfast? Malforms don’t consume anything beside blood, but we saw them at the market around food. Oh, I can’t wait to find out!” Hand reaching for her ever-present notebook, she somehow managed to write down more notes while opening and closing the door, never glancing up the entire time. 

Why was he surrounded by so many lunatics? Levi probably didn’t want to know the answer. He rubbed his tired eyes and contemplated going through more reports that were stacked on his desk before deciding that he’d done enough for the day. Sparing the time to send a message to his personal squad that he wanted to meet with them before breakfast, he got up to wash the teapot and cups before preparing for bed; he had a feeling that tomorrow was going to be a long day.

*******

Eren stared at the formal uniform that he’d left out for the morning – Captain Hange had been very busy – either she or one of her squad had prepped the room with several sets of the uniform that Eren, Mikasa and Armin would need for their new lives in the Freedom Corps. Starting in the morning, they would be wearing the white pants made of a heavy duty material reminiscent of the denim from his youth, thick white cotton shirts and grey leather jackets with matching grey, over the knee boots. A grey leather belt held the holsters for the long, sword-like blades and another thicker one provided support for the rappelling cords as well as held several small pouches, and of course there was the gauntlet. He frowned as he picked it up. “What happened to the maneuvering gear they used to use?” he asked, careful to pitch his voice low since Armin was sleeping in the other room.

Stretched out on the makeshift cot like an indolent cat, Mikasa lifted her head off of her arms to look over at him. “Hmm? Oh, let me think.” She rose up in a smooth motion and joined him over at the desk, where his new outfit was spread out. “Didn’t they switch over a couple of centuries ago? After the incident with the Nanghai dome?”  
  
He stared at her in surprise. “Was that what broke the seal? I’d always wondered.” Looking back down at the gauntlet, he ran his fingers over the shining wire. “It’s a lot more compact, but I miss the old gear. Don’t we still have some old sets stashed up around Lake Constance?”

“We should, though I imagine that the leather’s rotted away by now.” Mikasa rested her chin on his shoulder as she watched him twist the gear about. “They always seem to think that they improve upon things, don’t they?”

“I certainly didn’t complain when they restored hot, running water,” he pointed out with a wry smile, “but yeah, that might have been the highlight of the last millennia.” Funny how it was the simple things that made one happy. He let a yelp when a sharp finger poked him in the ribs.

“I seem to remember a particularly ecstatic brother when we happened back upon air conditioning,” Mikasa remarked with a bit of smugness.

He did a snatching motion at one of the ends of her scarf to make her back off, both of them laughing softly. “All right, I still recall that day with much fondness. I didn’t think you were too happy about having an enhanced sense of smell and dealing with constant b.o..” He sniffed to illustrate his point and chuckled when she shuddered in exaggerated horror. “Yeah, I thought so.” Setting the gauntlet down, he ran his right hand through his hair and let out a slow breath. “So, now that Armin’s asleep, how mad are you with me?” He figured he’d get this out of the way sooner rather than later. Mikasa could be rather inventive if left to stew over things.

His sister trailed her fingers along the desk and took her time heading back to the cot, obviously putting her thoughts in order before she answered. Sitting down with her legs crossed and her hands wrapped in the ends of the long scarf, she stared at nothing for a few seconds before looking up at him and giving one smooth shrug. “Honestly? At one point I don’t know who I wanted to strangle more, you or that short asshole,” she admitted with a rueful grin.

“That sounds about right.” Eren pulled out the desk’s chair and sat backwards on it, his arms folded across its top and his chin resting on them. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this without giving you any warning, but after hearing that roar….” His hands clenched into fists and he struggled to keep his fangs from pushing out; they really needed to feed soon.

Mikasa’s gaze gentled and her hands relaxed around her scarf. “I know, which was why soon enough I merely wanted to gut that rude Captain.” She let out a shaky breath and tugged at her bangs. “I wish it had been done more on our terms, without Commander Smith knowing so much about us beforehand, but what’s done is done.” Pushing back the dark strands, she summoned a reassuring smile for him. “I do agree with you and Armin – we need allies if the others are coming after us. They’ve never been this determined, what with trying to cut off our escape routes and then a deliberate attack like today.”

“Do you think they knew we were there?” Eren chewed at a hangnail while he waited for the answer; he hadn’t brought this up in front of their friend, as there were still a few things they kept from Armin more for his own peace of mind than any sense of distrust.

“No.” The quickness of Mikasa’s answer was a relief of sorts. “I think one of them, perhaps Annie or Reiner, would have been there in person if they did. But we might have revealed ourselves to them if there’s any footage of us fighting.”

Wasn’t that a cheerful thought? If they asked Commander Smith to take care of it, it might raise flags that would draw the wrong attention to them anyway. Eren ran his hands through his hair and tugged on the strands in frustration; why was it that in trying to escape one trap, he only saw others? It would be so much easier to just breach the seal and run outside, except that would mean leaving Armin behind and vulnerable as there was still another month before the worst of the solar radiation faded. Those bastards knew that, too, which was why they were pushing so hard right now.

“How come whenever we try to be human, it always hurts us so much?”

He hadn’t realized that he’d spoken out loud until his sister was kneeling beside him, her arms wrapped around his shoulders and her forehead pressed against his. “But it’s not all pain, is it? We’ll get through the dark times, we always do.”

Hugging her back, Eren reminded himself that she was right – that this would be worth it in the end. It had been incredible to see Armin grow up from a small child, so frightened and unsure. And if they could do what they had set out to do, to retrieve Grisha’s research, then there should be a lot less darkness out there for people. Maybe then he and Mikasa could leave the domes behind and find someplace peaceful to live for a few centuries.

“If you want to do something fun, why don’t you help me teach that rude asshole some manners?” Mikasa asked, a hopeful expression on her face as she pulled away.

That made him laugh, even as he shook his head. “I don’t think he’d survive the experience, and then we’d be in trouble,” he admitted with some regret. “So you’ll just have to play nice.” He grinned at her disgruntled frown and fussed with her scarf. “Just wait until he tries to teach you something and you get to show him up, Miss Perfect.” The use of her old nickname earned him a pleased smile.

“Just remembered that I offered.” She rose up and sauntered back over to the bed. “You going to be up a little longer?”

“Yeah, so you can sleep first.” He settled a little lower on the chair and watched her curl up on the bed; this might be their home for the foreseeable future, but that didn’t mean they needed to lower their guard entirely. He’d take first watch while his sister got the rest she needed, then they’d switch out.

The room was quiet after Mikasa fell asleep, leaving Eren to sit there, alone with the memories that always pressed at his mind whenever he had nothing to distract him, that reminded him of all that he had lost and all those he had failed.

*******

Levi entered the private meeting room where he’d requested his squad to assemble and found them waiting for him, ready for the day despite the early hour. Gunther was leaning against the projector screen wall with a mug of coffee in his left hand, Petra sat on top of one of the tables while Oluo hovered nearby, and Erd scanned the a datapad in his right hand.

“Sir, here’s the latest updates on the squadron’s condition.” Erd handed the datapad over to Levi, which he tucked into an interior pocket, next to the datapad he’d brought with him.

“Thank you. I appreciate everyone taking care of the entire squad while Erwin and I handled other matters last night,” Levi told his people; it wasn’t often that he delegated to such an extent, but it was good to know that they were up to it.

Oluo puffed out his chest in obvious pride while everyone else murmured something to the effect that the recognition wasn’t necessary. With that out of the way, Levi cocked a hip against one of the tables and folded his arms over his chest, the gauntlet a solid presence against his ribs.

“So, you’re probably wondering what this is about.” When everyone nodded, he continued. “We have two new members to this special squad – Eren and Mikasa Stieger. You’ll be meeting them after breakfast and helping me train them.”

Oluo stiffened in apparent outrage while Erd stepped forward. “These are the children we brought in last night? The two who were fighting with us at the market?” he asked. “Does this have anything to do with why you were chasing after them before the attack broke out? Rumor has it that you know them, Captain.”

“Yes and no.” Levi reached for the datapad that he’d brought along to the meeting. “I’ve been looking for them for a while, but not for the reasons in the rumor.” Powering up the datapad, he made sure to catch everyone’s attention. “What I’m telling you now is a secret that is you will *not* reveal to anyone else.” He let his tone and his expression convey how serious he was, aware that his personal squad knew him well enough by now that threats weren’t necessary. “The Commander, Hange and I are the only ones so far who know this, and I’m trusting you, too.”

“Thank you for your faith, Captain.” Petra approached the table where he had settled with Oluo trailing after her, and Gunther joined in as well, his coffee set aside. “We won’t disappoint you.”

They better fucking not, but Levi left that unsaid. “It’s Hange’s harebrained scheme to let everyone think that the brats are someone connected to me, and I’m not going to argue with her. We can’t risk anyone figuring out who they really are.”

“What, are they related to the Chairman or something? They don’t look that spoiled.” Gunther came to stand beside Erd, a disgruntled look on his face as he considered the possibility of some pampered brats joining the squad.

Wouldn’t that be something, Levi thought as he showed them the image that Erwin had tracked down. “Not quite. Though their dad is rather famous.” He gave them a minute for the importance of the picture to sink in, who was the man in it, how old it was….

Erd was the first one to catch on, judging from the way his face paled and his jaw dropped. Petra was next; she emitted a loud gasp and her gaze shifted to Levi’s right away. Gunther shook his head as if to deny what was in front of him, and Oluo frowned while he glanced back and forth between the datapad and everyone else as if unsure of the situation.

“That isn’t real, is it?” Erd reached for the datapad, his fingers stopped just short of the device. “I’ve seen those kids myself, they can’t be the same.”

“They’re real, and so is that photo.”  
  
“But… that would make them how old?” Petra’s brows furrowed and she wrapped her arms around her waist as if for comfort. “Over a dozen centuries? That’s not possible.”

Nice to know it was only freaks like Erwin and Hange who were able to so easily accept that there were people who could live so long, Levi thought to himself. “Apparently, when your father is one of the best scientists alive, he can create a serum that not only makes you immune to Malform bites but turns you into some sort of Malform hybrid. These brats have all of the best traits of Malforms without the whole ‘must eat humans’ side effects.” He’d stated that as dryly as possible to lessen the impact, but his squad still took the news rather hard.

“Those kids are monsters?” Spittle flew from Olou’s lips as he nearly knocked the datapad from Levi’s hand with his wild gesturing. “How can you let them near us? They should be-ouch!” He grasped at his mouth, his eyes shut tight in pain since the idiot had probably bit his tongue nearly in half in panic.

“Sir, you’re bringing Malforms into the Corps?” Gunther grasped his blades and pulled them partially from their sheathes. “I don’t see how that’s-“

“No, you don’t see *anything*.” Levi cut him off, his voice utterly cold. He set the datapad down behind him and rested his hands on his own hilts. “You think we decided this just on a whim? That we saw two kids with fangs and said ‘yeah, no problem here, come on in and join us? Let’s take bets on how long before you tear out our fucking throats?’” He pushed forward to get in Gunther’s face. “Have you not noticed how many of us are dying? You think it’s fine that those shitty freaks are wiping humans out and we’re unable to stop them?”

“Nuh-no Sir!” His face covered with sweat, Gunther took a hasty step backwards.

Levi turned his attention towards Oluo. “What about you? You think you’re doing anything other than dulling your blades and making a nice target during the next attack?”

“We-we’re doing our best, Captain!” Oluo managed to stutter out, his knees trembling and his weight bent onto a table for support.

“As if our best is fucking good enough.” Levi tsk’ed as he shoved back the hair falling into his eyes. “And now we’ve got two brats who know the enemy better than we do, who have a lead on research that might lead to a cure, and you want to kill them? I don’t keep any shitty morons on my squad – if that’s what you want then turn in your blades and leave.”

He stood there watching them as they struggled with how they would normally react to a situation like this and with what he was asking from them. Petra was the first person to come stand beside him, her head held high, soon followed by Erd. Oluo appeared lost for a moment, then he tugged on his grey jacket and hurried to Petra’s side. Gunther wiped his right hand over his face and let out a slow breath before giving Levi a nod.

“Can I at least complain if they try to drain anyone dry, Sir?”

Levi huffed in amusement and smiled, just a little. “Sure, why not. I’ll even let you join in when I start kicking their asses,” he promised.

That seemed to put the whole squad at ease. “I can’t get over how young they look! I really thought the one boy was only about fourteen or so! And what about the other one – the blond? He’s not in the picture.” Petra turned to look at the datapad.

“Seems they picked him up along the way,” Levi explained as he grabbed the datapad and turned it off; it wouldn’t do for anyone else to come across it. “They think he’s the second coming of Grisha Jaeger or something, so Hange’s got her hands on the poor kid to pick his brains.” Chances were split if the kid would still be sane after a day spent in that lunatic’s care. “As far as we can tell, he’s still human.

Erd rubbed at the back of his head, beneath where his blond hair was neatly tied back, and allowed some of his unease to show through. “Sir, you said that these… uhm, ‘kids’, had some Malform traits. May I ask what they are so we won’t be surprised when training them?”

Done tucking away the datapad, Levi tugged his jacket even and shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t entirely know.” He frowned at that, thinking back to yesterday. “I got the sense that the damned brats aren’t telling us everything, but between Hange hounding them for her own research and us training them, we’ll learn more.” He wouldn’t let them hold anything back – they needed to know *everything* if they were going to wipe out the fucking Malforms. “What I can tell you is they look pretty normal except for when their eyes start getting brighter, or go gold in the girl’s case, and that’s when the fangs and claws come out. They have the enhanced speed and strength of Malforms as well, just how much I don’t know, but if they use it in front of the Corps, that’s going to be a reason for them to get their asses kicked.”

“So we’re to discipline them if they exceed human parameters,” Gunther asked, his body tense and his hands hovering around his hilts. “Two recruits with above normal strength and reactions who also possessive fangs.”

Levi made a tsk’ing sound again and shook his head. “You’re supposedly to be among the best, aren’t you? And you’re to *reprimand* them if they slip up. If there’s a problem with them being unable to hide what they are or they actually harm anyone, *I’ll* deal with them. In the end, they’re my responsibility.” He’d already told Erwin that, he’d taken them into his squad, so he’d deal with any trouble they brought into the Corps. “Now, unless there’s any more questions, I suggest everyone finish getting ready for the day. We’ll start early, before it gets too busy, in the adjunct corner of the training yard.”

That assurance seemed to put everyone at ease; Gunther relaxed and went to fetch his coffee mug while Petra chided Oluo about something. Erd approached Levi, and the solemn look on his face wiped away the feeling of accomplishment inside of Levi.

“Sir, the bodies are ready for inspection.”

Grateful that he hadn’t had time to eat anything yet that morning, Levi went to see the fallen members of his squadron to pay his final respects.

*******

Eren followed Captain Hange into the dining room, Mikasa on his left and Armin trailing behind. “Mealtimes are usually at 07:00, 12:00 and 18:00 and last an hour, with snacks available throughout the day. If something happens to interrupt the schedule, the kitchen will open up to make sure everyone gets something to eat,” she explained as she led them toward the serving line. They picked up polymer trays and metal silverware – Eren and Mikasa shared quick grins over how some things never seemed to change – and waited their turns for what turned out to be mugs of murky coffee, mushy oatmeal, a lump of multigrain bread and a tube of some yogurt/fruit blend. To think that at one point that Eren had been repulsed by the fact that he survived on Malform blood….

Still chatting away about the Freedom Corps’ daily schedule and what would probably be lunch – Eren really, *really* hoped that they managed to go out hunting later as he didn’t want to try ‘garbage can stew’ – they were led toward a table half-filled with Corps members who looked a couple of years older than his physical appearance. “Hey, I’d like you guys to meet our latest recruits. You might have seen them yesterday,” Captain Hange explained while she motioned for Eren, Mikasa and Armin to sit down, her tray wavering back and forth in her left hand. “These are Eren and Mikasa Stieger and Armin Aubert. Eren and Mikasa will be reporting to Captain Ackerman’s squad, while Armin’s all mine!”

Everyone paused in their eating to look and offer up greetings, except for a teenaged girl with dark brown hair pulled back in a ponytail who continued to eat even though she smiled and waved hello. “So were you the two civilians who helped us out yesterday?” asked a girl with black hair. “Oh, I’m Mina. Mina Carolina.”

In the process of sitting down, Eren managed a nervous laugh and nodded. “Yeah, that’s us.” He pushed the oatmeal aside and picked up the bread. Were they supposed to talk to these kids? What were they going to say?

“Aren’t you like Captain Ackerman’s cousin or something?” a sandy-haired boy asked as he leaned around the girl, Mina. “Did he give you private training?”

Remembering what Captain Hange had told them on the way to breakfast, Eren shook his head and shoved a piece of the dry bread into his mouth. Beside him, Mikasa murmured something about them picking up the skills ‘back home’. That was one way of putting it, he supposed.

Another kid, one with spiky hair and who was busy eying up Mikasa, looked back and forth between her and Eren. “Are you to related by blood or did-“

“Come on now, give them a chance to eat their breakfast,” Captain Hange chided the table. “They’re not going anywhere, so you can you can talk to them afterwards.”

Grateful for the captain even if she was a bit strange, Eren hunched over his breakfast tray and attempted to pretend that he was busy eating. The coffee was relatively easy to drink – he’d had worse, at least this water was lacking parasites – but the bread was about all the food that he could stomach. Beside him, Mikasa wasn’t faring any better, tearing much of her bread into crumbs and eating only bits. Armin seemed to be doing his best to distract people’s attention by asking where everyone was from, but Eren noticed that Captain Hange was staring at their mostly full trays.

It appeared that the captain wasn’t the only one who was watching them ‘eat’, as the hungry girl with brown hair leaned across the table to motion at their trays. “So, are you going to finish that or what?” she asked, some oatmeal stuck to the left side of her mouth emphasizing her hopeful smile.

“Not really,” Mikasa replied before Eren could answer. “I guess we’re too nervous about our first day of training to eat much.”

“Then can I?” The girl reached out her hands, fingers twitching right above the trays.

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Eren told her, not seeing any sense in the food going to waste. He watched in amazement as she snatched away, crowing in excitement while she stacked the bowls and yogurt tubes on her own tray.

“Ugh, you’re going to be sick from working out on such a full stomach, Sasha,” the boy sitting next to her remarked, an appalled expression twisting his mouth as he turned his back to the girl.

“That’s impossible,” the girl – Sasha – mumbled out in-between bites. Eren watched on in sickened fascination as she shoved the oatmeal in as quickly as she could, like an animal terrified that its food was about to be taken away. “I’d only get sick if my stomach was empty.”

There were muttered comments about ‘freak’ as everyone else finished their breakfasts at a much more leisurely pace, while Eren nursed his brackish coffee. It was fortunate that he’d just swallowed the last mouthful because the footsteps he heard approaching from behind turned out to belong to Short Bastard; the man formally announced his presence by smacking his hand onto Eren’s right shoulder. “Come on, brat, we’re going to start your training now.”

About to snap back that he had a fucking name, Eren caught himself just in time, mostly by the stunned looks on the faces of most of the kids at the table. He was supposed to be one of them, damnit, that meant he couldn’t respond like a fellow ‘adult’. So instead, he pulled on the well-worn mask he used when dealing with morons who thought they had some sort of age advantage over him – usually strength, weight and height as well.

“Uhm, ye-yes, Sir!” He ducked his head as if overcome with embarrassment or shyness, his eyes wide and anger lending his face some heat as he scrambled to stand up. Beside him, Mikasa managed to do so in a much more elegant manner, her face the expressionless mask that *she* wore when doing her best not to ‘fang out’ in fury but that most people mistook for natural reserve. “I’m sorry, Sir!” Standing in front of the asshole with an obvious Napoleon complex, he bit into his bottom lip as if nervous and kept his head bowed – while inside he was laughing at the new nickname he came up with for Short Asshole.

Glancing through his bangs, he saw ‘Napoleon’ eying him with suspicion while a pretty woman with auburn hair trying to hide a smile behind her hand stood to his left. After a few seconds, Captain Ackerman grunted and waved his right hand toward the dining room’s far exit. “Come on, we’re going to start your training before it gets too crowded.”

“Stop by the lab if you need a break!” Captain Hange called out when they began to walk away. “We’d appreciate the company!”

Captain Ackerman muttered something along the lines of ‘lunatic’ under his breath and didn’t bother with a proper answer. For such a short guy, he sure could walk fast, a fact that Eren had found out the hard way from being dragged all around yesterday. At least he wasn’t being manhandled this morning, something his arms very much appreciated. Still, Mikasa stuck close to his left side as if to block the captain if he reached for Eren; catching her eye, Eren mouthed the word ‘Napoleon’ while jerking his chin in the grump’s direction. His sister’s dark eyes lit up as she made the association and she had to stifle a giggle with her scarf.

They crossed a large, open courtyard that Eren remembered from last night, and kept walking until they came around a bend to a smaller area cordoned off by the headquarter’s building and the outer walls. Waiting for them were three other men, two of them several inches taller than Eren and one just a little more. In fact, the only one who was shorter than him, other than the captain, was the auburn haired woman.

“Meet the members of my special squad,” Captain Ackerman said as Eren and Mikasa approached the men. “These are the only ones besides Commander Smith, Hange and myself whom you can trust, unless Hange includes her assistant as well.” He came to a halt and motioned to the woman standing beside him. “Petra Ral.” She gave him and Mikasa a friendly smile. “Oluo Bozado.” The man with the dirty blond hair cut in a similar under-cut style to the captain as well as sporting the same cravat to go along with his white shirt eyed the two of them as if they would rip out his throat at any moment; Eren had a feeling they wouldn’t be friends any time soon. “Gunther Schultz.” The dark-complexioned man was another one who eyed the two of them with suspicion, merely giving them a curt nod in greeting. “And Erd Jinn, my second in command. You’re to follow his orders if I’m not around,” Captain Ackerman informed them, his tone sharp as if he expected to be obeyed without any question. At least this guy looked at them as if they were something other than monsters, his face more solemn than condemning.

“A pleasure to meet you.” Eren managed to summon up a smile while Mikasa pressed against his side; they may have decided to trust the Freedom Corps and Commander Smith may have insisted that the Corps could be trusted, but he was certain that his sisters was thinking the same thing that he was – at the first sign of betrayal, they were heading straight for the walls and would be back at nightfall for Armin, assured that their friend would be kept safe until then for the knowledge he might know about Grisha’s research.

Captain Ackerman snorted as he undid the buckles of his weapons belt. “Relax, brat, you look like you need to take a shit.” He handed the belt with its blades over to Oluo, who almost tripped over himself to hold the gear. “Now, we all saw that you can use the gauntlets so we’ll save that for another day. Besides, we always start out the recruits with hand to hand training first, working with them from the ground up. So I’ll assess your skills and then let the squad beat you into shape.” He assumed a standard fighting pose, feet roughly shoulder-length apart and hands held at roughly shoulder height in loose fists, ready to block or strike.

Mikasa made to stand in front of Eren, at least until he grabbed hold of her shoulder and shook his head; they exchanged a long look before she shrugged and waited for Eren to hand her his belt and weapons; while he was a better fighter when using his claws and teeth, he had some hand to hand skills learned over the years. However, Mikasa was the much better fighter, so he’d rather the bastard take him on first and *then*, after having his expectations set low, deal with Mikasa.

Smiling in anticipation with what would soon happen, Eren took his position in front of the smug bastard. “All right, Napoleon, enlighten me.”

A dark eyebrow arched over a narrowed grey eye, yet all the man did was snort again. “That’s ‘Captain Napoleon’ to you, brat.” Just as Eren had suspected, the short bastard had no clue about the historical reference – so much had been lost after the solar flares, after all. “Oh, and remember, there’s no telling who’s watching us,” the bastard just had to point out before he rushed forward.

Gritting his teeth as he struggled to keep his reactions to a human level, Eren managed to block the first blow to his face and most of the punch to his ribs, only to end up face down on the ground a few seconds later as his feet were swept out from underneath him. Struggling to keep his teeth hidden, he breathed in and out a few times before he pushed up onto his knees.

“Pathetic.” Captain Ackerman sneered at him as he danced back just out of reach. “How have you managed to survive this long?”

“I suppose dumb luck and dogged determination helps.” Eren stood back up and waited for the next attack, which didn’t take long. He allowed the asshole another opening, used to being knocked down, used to pain, mind following along with ease despite the fact that the captain was pretty fast for a human, a *human*. The sounds of Olou cheering on Captain Ackerman when Eren hit the ground again was inconsequential, since he was too busy playing back the few seconds before he was falling through his mind to care that someone was mocking him.

Standing up once more, he met Mikasa’s gaze and acknowledged the slight smile she gave him with one of his own. This time when Captain Ackerman dashed toward him, he didn’t just stand there, he shifted to the right and raised his left arm to block while turning just so, his foot coming up to hook around the bastard’s calf while he used momentum to shove him forward and toward the ground.

As the arrogant bastard fell hard, Eren went with him, pinning him down with knees on either side of his waist. “But mainly?” Eren said, carrying on the topic from before. “I tend to learn quickly, *Sir*.” He leaned in so that his face was barely centimeters away from the man’s and bared his teeth, revealing the fangs that he had kept hidden for a second then pulled away.

To give the man credit, Captain Ackerman stared evenly back at him before nodding once. “Good to know you’re not as clueless as you look. Now get your scrawny ass off of me so I can beat a few more moves into your thick head.” He gave Eren’s ass a smack as if to emphasis the order.

“What?” Startled by the contact, Eren practically jumped straight up, his face flushed. Looking rather smug at the reaction, Captain Ackerman rose at a more leisurely pace, straightened out his uniform and then indicated that he was ready to resume the sparring match.

Judging from the golden gleam in Mikasa’s eyes, ‘Napoleon’ was going to regret that little joke when it was her turn for the lesson. Eren almost felt sorry for the bastard.

*******

 


	8. Dark Side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, thanks so much for all the comments and kudos on the previous chapter. It really helped to spur me on to get this chapter out more or less 'on time'. (It also helps that we're getting to what I think of as the 'fun' part of the storyline - bringing in more of the other characters, touching on certain aspects of their past, starting to get to the heart of the plot).
> 
> Now for the 'serious' part. Perhaps this should rate as a trigger warning based on a technicality - it's obvious that Eren in this fic (as well as Mikasa) is *physically* under-age (think along the lines of the anime/manga, with Mikasa about a year older). The logic I'm going with in the fic is that Eren was about at least 15, almost 16 years old when he was 'turned', but there was some adverse affects due to malnutrition and stress (you can't spend a year or so scavenging for food and basically being hunted night and day and it not adversely affect your growth).
> 
> Yet mentally, those two are *more* than mature enough to be having sexual relations (both on the age front and life experiences front). The same will go for other characters - the 'package' might look under-age, but in actuality they are the oldest ones - or both fully mature - in a relationship. So it'll raise issues on how do they approach a relationship when they are so old, when they know they'll outlive their partners, when they have so much experience, and when the other person is seeing something that doesn't match the inside. There will be times when they may use the 'exterior' to their benefit. However, at the time they're well past the age of consent.
> 
> So, fair warning - as of this point I'll start alluding to certain sexual situations, and soon enough actual ones will appear in the fic.

*******  
Levi stalked down the hallways leading to his quarters, daring anyone he came across to say something. *Something*. Just a word. That’s all they had to do, because he would use that as an excuse to make them regret the day their mothers had ever open their legs to their fathers, had birthed such moronic failures of shitstains. However, one look at him and they scuttled away as quickly as possible, faces blanched and jaws agape, so his temper rose to an even more furious level without any source of an outlet.

“Levi? Levi! Holy hell, what happened to you? You decide to become one with the grass or what?”

He whipped his head around upon hearing Hange’s dementedly cheerful voice and gritted his teeth together at the aches, the *fucking* *aches* the quick motion produced. “You!* he snarled out as he stomped in her direction. “You and your shit for brains, lunatic ideas!” he shouted as he reached up to grab her by her ponytail to haul her into the nearest room, which ended up being the crazy bitch’s lab. Moblit looked up and blinked in surprise at their arrival, what with Hange shrieking like a scalded cat and all. “Get *out*,” Levi ordered, and one more look at his flailing captain and then back at Levi, Moblit wisely chose to scurry out of the room.

“Traitor!” Hange wailed at her assistant’s departing back, right before Levi shoved her onto a stool. “What’s your problem, you psychotic little shit!” She swatted at him before she sniffed while fussing with her ponytail, mouth turned down in a displeased frown.

“Problem?” Levi fought the urge to go for his blades. “Did I yank your eyes out by pulling too hard there or something?” he asked as he stood in front of her, his voice deceptively quiet.

  
Taking the time to adjust her glasses, Hange looked him up and down, her frown lessening the slightest bit. “Like I said, you look like you seriously played in the dirt. What’s up with that, Mr. Clean Freak, and why the hell does that give you the right to beat me up? I’ve been in my lab all morning.”

Levi ran his hands through his hair and nearly growled when he found a blade of grass tangled in the strands. “Because it was your shitty idea for me to go easy on that bitch! *She’s* the psychotic one!” Just the thought of Mikasa Ackerman made him want to choke someone – preferably a certain scarf-wearing, black-haired bitch.

Hange’s brows drew together as she stared at him in confusion for several seconds… and then the lunatic had the audacity to laugh. When Levi lunged at her, hands held out to grab her by the throat, she scrambled off of the stool and bolted behind a table covered in glass beakers for safety. “You, one of the Corps greatest if not *the* greatest, got your ass handed to you by a little girl? I can’t believe it!” She laughed some more while she continued to dodge his attempts to catch her, until she tripped over her own feet and fell down. She was still laughing when he pounced and pinned her to the floor. “This is so great!”

“She didn’t ‘hand me my ass, she just… gah!” Levi shoved Hange’s heaving shoulders against the floor and stood up so he could stalk his way over to a chair, which he dropped into despite the various aches and pains of his abused body. “I’m *filthy*, Hange.” Damnit, why did he sound like a petulant brat just then?

Stifling her laughter, Hange forced herself up into a sitting position. “Yeah, I sorta noticed that.” She wiped away a tear falling down her face and shook her head. “Must have been rather impressive, today’s training session. You happen to be rethinking that ‘they’re just kids’ theory yet?” She propped her chin up on her right hand and stared evenly at him, her left eyebrow arched above her eye.

He scowled at a dark green stain on his right knee for a moment before he answered. “We focused on hand-to-hand training like I planned, dividing the first half of the session on the brat and then the second half on his sister.” His scowl worsened as he thought about well the latter part of that had gone. “Eren… he picks up things quick, I’ll give him that, but you can tell he wants to go by on instinct and not formal training.”

“Not too surprising, when you consider the Malform nature.” Hange’s brown eyes became unfocused as if she was forming some hypothesis in her head. “I wonder just how much the hunting instinct takes over in his daily life….”

“It better not at all while he’s wearing a Corps uniform,” Levi informed her as he brushed some dried dirt off of his jacket sleeve, his teeth grinding together at the thought of how *filthy* he was just then. Dammit, he really needed a shower – was willing to forgo lunch so he could spend the hour just standing beneath a constant stream of hot water.

“Unless we can put it to good use.” Attention focused upon him once again, Hange smiled and motioned at his disheveled appearance. “So, Eren’s not exactly the stuff of legends, but workable. On to Mikasa.”

His teeth grinding together even harder at the mention of Eren’s sister, Levi forced himself to let out a slow breath before he began ranting. “The first pass or two, she started out just like her brother, going down without too much effort. Turned out that the bitch was just sizing me up. Then she decided to show me what she had.” As much as he hated to admit it, she had quite a lot.

Hange seemed to read his thoughts. “I’m going to assume she’s rather impressive, judging from your appearance.” She motioned in his general direction. “In a way, you really shouldn’t be too surprised,” she seemed to take great delight in pointing out. “From the little I could see back at the market, she had a very impressive kill rate, and she *is* extremely old. Also, if you stop to think of what she survived through, she has to have developed impressive skills.”

“Yes, but she got attacked at least once in that lifetime.” Levi derived some satisfaction in reminding his friend of that fact.

All it got him was a disapproving sigh as Hange shook her head. “A vast majority of the population was attacked and killed by Malforms during the initial solar flares and collapse of civilization. The ones who survived unscathed were basically the best at hiding and evasion.”

Feeling very tired and not seeing how this was getting him any closer to that desperately needed shower and a change of clothes – his skin was *twitching* from the feel of the dirt and grass clinging to it, not to mention the drying sweat – Levi ran his hands through his disheveled hair and let out an exasperated sigh. “Can we at least agree that Mikasa doesn’t need any hand to hand training? I’ll be too tempted to kill her if I’m involved and she’s above the level of my personal squad.”

“Agreed.” Hange tugged at the top of her left boot and grinned, the expression too pleased all of a sudden. “And what about Eren? He sounds as if he has promise but is still a diamond in the rough.”

  
Levi thought back to how the brat had taken him down that one time, and how fun it had been to spook him – he hadn’t expected such a startled reaction from the smack like that, and it amused him to finally be able to shake up Eren so much after all the trouble the kid had brought into his world. “Erd and Petra can probably help a bit with practice sessions, but I still want to be involved with his training. I suspect that unless it’s drilled into his thick head, he’ll slip back into old habits.” The last thing they needed was a member of the Freedom Corps going after a Malform with claws or teeth.

  
Hange’s grin became even wider. “I think you just want to spend quality time with your cu-“

He cut her off before she went any further. “May I remind you that I’m filthy, I stink and I barely resisted killing one person already today,” he said in a low voice.

“You’re no fun.” Hange pouted for a few seconds. “So, what’s the plan for this afternoon? Move on to gauntlet training?” She seemed to perk up at that idea. “Maybe I’ll give Armin a break and tag along – he’s been wonderful in providing me so *much* information but I think I’m wearing him out already.” She looked a bit sad and confused at that.

The thought of dealing with Mikasa again so soon was enough to give Levi a headache. “Honestly? I might just have Erd show the kids around the base or something. Not quite sure I’m up to a few more hours of ‘instruction’.”

It looked as if Hange was going to harangue him about his decision, perhaps call him to task about being lazy or letting a ‘little girl’ get the better of him, and then a huge smile spread across her face. “Oh, I have an idea! What if I ask Mike to go over the basics with Armin to give the poor kid a break and you bring your two here after lunch?” When he stared at her in confusion, she jumped up from the floor and waved her arms around the lab. “I can start interviewing them about their abilities!”

On the surface, it seemed like a good idea, but that’s usually how these things went when Hange was involved. It all *started* out okay, then turned into a huge flaming pile of shit. “I thought we agreed to take it slow with them, to earn their trust.”

“That’s why I said to *interview* them, not tie them down and start the dissection.” Hange rolled her eyes as if Levi was an idiot. “I’ll save that for the second session.”  
  
Unsure if she was kidding about the dissection part and not really caring at this point, Levi grunted in agreement as he forced his tired body to stand up. For fuck’s sake, he was *sore* right now; he’d stand back and do nothing if the lunatic decided to start the carving on that black-haired bitch today. “Fine, we’ll be here after lunch.”

“Yay!” Hange did some sort of weird dance that he *really* didn’t need to see.

Heading toward the door so he could take that much needed shower, Levi recalled something and paused. “Hey! Crazy person! You remember your history lessons, right?” He waited until Hange stopped twitching and nodded. “Napoleon was some sort of general, right?”

She chewed on her bottom lip a few times as if it helped with her memory. “If I remember correctly… yeah, general and a dictator, I think. Something about wars named after him. Flash in the pan, for the most part.”

The brats had probably saddled him with the nickname because of the ‘dictator’ thing, Levi thought to himself as he waved goodbye, leaving a confused Hange in his wake. Well, there were worse epitaphs out there, he supposed. He could certainly prove to them how he lived up to it if given the proper incentive.

*******

Eren tugged on Mikasa’s left elbow as they headed toward the cafeteria and pulled her into what looked to be an empty hallway. “Really? Did you have to beat him up that much,” he asked once they were far enough away from everyone else.

She tugged down her scarf and gave him a hurt look. “Are we talking about the same asshole? The one who’s been treating you like a piece of meat and actually manhandled you earlier today?” From the angry gleam in her eyes, the hint of gold in the dark brown, he suspected that she was still furious about the ‘friendly’ pat from before.

Running a soothing touch up and down her arm, he smiled in a reassuring manner. “I don’t think he meant anything by that, honest.” Eren was skilled at judging when someone had an ‘interest’ in him and twisting it to their advantage over their years – it had helped in more than one difficult situation. Hell, if Mikasa knew about the last time he’d used that…. “I knew you were going to put in him his place, I just didn’t think you were going to do it *that* much.” He winced a little to prove his point. “You know you’re totally bad-ass, right?”

A slight blush spread across his sister’s cheeks, which she tried to hide by pulling up the scarf; at least he’d managed to bank her anger somewhat. “He’s somewhat skilled himself, so I figured that he could keep up,” she mumbled.

Eren smiled to show that he wasn’t too upset and tucked back a lock of Mikasa’s hair. “I think – and try not to have too much of a heart-attack here – that the bastard might have been holding back a little today.” He laughed at Mikasa’s incredulous look. “Yeah, the benefit of having him smack me around so much was that I felt a bit of tension in his muscles and reactions.” When she continued to stare at him, he sighed and stepped back. “Am I really considered to be such an idiot in comparison to you and Armin,” he whined.

A slight smile tugged at the corners of Mikasa’s lips as she slipped her left arm into his right. “Well, it’s not as if I have *extensive* examples of when you’ve been exactly that.” When he growled at her words, she let a rare, exuberant laugh slip free. “You know you’re not the brains of this partnership,” she chided as she led him back to the cafeteria.

Eren huffed in annoyance for a couple of seconds before he gave in with an embarrassed laugh. “All right, maybe you have a point. I just think that anyone would be considered an idiot when compared to the two of you.”

Mikasa spared him a sympathetic look before focusing on weaving her way through the crowd of hungry Freedom Corps’ members intent of their mid-day meal. “All right, what was *that* supposed to mean?” Eren demanded to know as he dug in his heels and pulled on his sister’s arm.

She made a frustrated sound and basically yanked him along, always being the stronger one. “Let’s just say it’s best that you leave the planning to Armin and me in the future, all right?” She had the audacity to pat the arm she was using to haul him along.

Snapping his teeth together in frustration, Eren didn’t think it was so wrong to wish that ‘Captain Napoleon’ managed to best his sister at some point in the future training.

*******

Levi rested his elbows against the high table in Hange’s lab. His friend was practically vibrating with excitement as she glanced back and forth between Eren and Mikasa, the former whom appeared rather uncertain at the prospect of being interviewed by the crazy scientist and the latter whom had most of her impassive face buried beneath that damn scarf. Being inside a messy as hell lab probably didn’t help the situation – various in-progress experiments were scattered all about every surface imaginable.

“So, I promised to take it easy on you to start, yes!” Hange bounced on the tip of her toes a couple of times, setting her ponytail swaying. “I thought I’d ask you some questions, get a feel for your abilities and general life experiences.” For a moment she seemed almost normal – Levi knew it wouldn’t last for long. “There’s just so much we don’t *know*!” she practically wailed while she clapped her hands together. And there she went.

Eren and Mikasa shuffled together as if there were strength in numbers before glancing at each other and then practically forcing themselves to sit down on the stools that Hange – well, probably Moblit, who was busy a safe distance away typing notes on everything the two siblings were doing – had set out for them. “Ah, yeah, that sounds reasonable,” Eren said, his voice a little higher than normal.

“Great!” Hange nodded her head in a frantic manner and waved her hands about. When Levi cleared his throat, she smiled, the expression so wide and bright it was almost sickening, and gestured to the large beaker on a Benson burner behind her. “I even have some refreshments! Who would like some tea?”

That seemed to put the two brats at ease as they agreed, and Hange busied herself preparing their drinks; Levi had beaten into her over the years the necessity of keeping anything to do with their refreshments clean, so the mugs had been washed along with the spoons, and the sugar and milk was fresh. Mikasa took hers black, Eren with just a little milk and sugar, like Levi, while Hange’s was barely half tea since she sweetened it so much.

“There, now that everyone is ready.” Hange nodded as if to herself and settled on a stool, all long legs and excessive energy. “So, we can agree that you have greater than average speed and strength than most humans, yes?”

Eren fiddled with his mug, his thin fingers twisting it around in his grip. “Yes. I don’t think we’ve ever measured it, but we’ve been faster and stronger than any human we’ve come across, and we can hold our own against any Malform.”

“And each other,” Levi asked, deciding to play devil’s advocate. “As well as those true vampires out there?”

Eren’s face became a bit flushed at the question. “Mikasa and I don’t have any cause to fight each other, but I’d say she’s stronger than me just because she’s the better fighter and physically more developed. As for the others….” He scowled into his mug.

“It’s difficult to say.” Mikasa spoke up, her eyes intent on Levi and bearing a spark of heat as if she hadn’t worked out all of her issues with him from earlier in the day. “We do our best to avoid them, so there’s been little actual fighting between us, and some of them are physically bigger and older than us. That should give them some advantage. But we’ve fought against worst odds.”

Hange shot Levi a warning look before she focused back on the siblings. “So you’re saying that you’re probably about equal with them.”

“Yeah.” Eren shrugged, mindful of the mug he was still clutching between his hands.

“Okay.” Hange gulped down the rest of her flavored sugar water and yanked out her notepad so she could write down her own notes. “And the healing?”

Levi thought he caught a flash of amber being rolled beneath the curtain of dark brown hair hanging over Eren’s face, and couldn’t really blame the brat – it was like Hange was going down a predictable checklist with the questions. “I thought we already said we had the increased healing.”

“Yes, but how good is it?” Hange leaned forward in a predatory manner. “Can you regrow back limbs? We’ve seen that happen in happen with Malforms before. How long would it take for cuts to close? Major blood loss! Would it be okay if I-“

“Hange!” Levi set down his own mug and took a step in her direction.

She glanced at him and then leaned back on her stool, a pout on her face. “I wouldn’t do anything *bad* to them, maybe just a little cut or two. I’d even numb the area first,” she mumbled, acting like a child that just had its favorite toy snatched away.

Mikasa was clutching at Eren’s left arm as if about to grab him and run, while Eren’s unusual eyes were wider than normal, seeming to take up most of his face. He opened his mouth a time or two before shaking his head, sending the long strands of his hair flying out. “Uhm, yeah, we can heal rather quickly from a lot of damage.”

Interesting manner to answer Hange’s question, Levi thought, and judging from the quick glance she sent his way, she’d noticed it too. The brat hadn’t given a definitive answer to if he could regrow limbs – considering how much the two mimicked Malforms and the fact that he hadn’t said ‘no’, Levi surmised that Hange would go with ‘yes’ and that Eren was still leery about giving away too much information just yet. Something like that might come in handy if either of them needed to sacrifice a limb in order to escape, after all.

Hange scribbled something down and nodded. “All right, so you can heal from a lot of damage. That’s most likely what keeps you from aging at all – as I mentioned, Malform cells are constantly replenishing, which is why they can heal so well. Have you noticed anything about your current physical conditions?”

There was another look exchanged between the siblings, a little longer this time. Eren sighed as he tucked back the hair that had fallen onto his face. “It took a while before I noticed that I’d stopped aging – things were confusing back then, it was hard enough to tell how much time had passed when you’re barely surviving day to day and only have the seasons to go on. Even those were all messed up because of the solar flares, what with winter coming later and all. We know we’d both passed fifteen, maybe even sixteen when I was… changed, but again, time was messed up, we’d spent over a year on our own outside scraping to survive on barely any food or rest.” He gestured to himself, and Levi took it to mean how young he looked, his scrawny appearance. “I think the only thing that changed after I was attacked was my eyes and, because of regular feeding, I did put on a little weight.”

If this was the brat with a ‘little weight’ added, Levi wasn’t sure he wanted to have seen him back then… but from what he’d heard of the times after the solar flares and civilization collapsing, it hadn’t been pretty.

Mikasa set her empty mug aside and fussed with her scarf. “Things got a little better after Eren…. Well, there was more food for me since we weren’t sharing it, and we were better at hunting thanks to his new skills. Also, some of the Malforms were reluctant to approach us, then. It seems the older they are, the better they are at sensing what he was, that he saw them as prey and they knew to avoid us. That gave us a bit more safety, so until my… ‘attack’, it was less stressful for me during the warmer months. That’s probably in part why I appear in better shape. We were never able to figure out why my eyes didn’t permanently changed to gold.”

“You’re Miss Perfect, of course you’re made of pure muscle,” Eren muttered, but with a smile. That earned him an elbow in the ribs.

Levi made a gagging sound as he got up to pour himself some more tea. That earned him twin glares from the siblings, but it put a stop to their antics so he wasn’t particularly bothered – not that he would had been bothered in the first place.

Hange glanced up from something she’d been jotting down in her notebook to study Eren, her eyes narrowed and her head cocked to the side. “Yes, I’d wondered about that as well, and can only assume that it’s something to do with you being the ‘originator’ of whatever your fa- Grisha Jaeger injected into you.” She made the hasty substitution when Eren sent her a virulent look at the mention of his father. “Perhaps there are only certain changes that you pass on yourself, which seems to be the case since Mikasa said she couldn’t transform another person. A… dilution, if you will.”

“That doesn’t make too much sense, but not much does about this situation.” Eren rubbed at his eyes, doing that thing again where he sounded so much older than he physically appeared.  
  
Levi swallowed his sip of tea before he spoke up again. “Think of it this way, brat – you don’t inherit all the traits of your parents, do you?”

Hange gave Levi a delighted smile for his contribution while Mikasa frowned and Eren grimaced. “I really don’t want to think of my sister as my *child*,” Eren said with evident distaste. “That’s just… weird.”

“Yes, we’ve come across a few ‘I am my own grandchild’ scenarios in our time.” Mikasa shuddered then leaned against Eren, who rested his head on her shoulder with an easy sort of comfort that annoyed Levi for some reason.

“Hmm, yes, I’ve read about the inbreeding that happened in the isolated communities after the initial solar flares.” Hange perked up as she tapped her pen against paper. “You’ll have to tell me about them someday!” At Levi’s warning kick against the table and the siblings’ exaggerated winces, she visibly deflated. “Or maybe not. Dammit.”

“Crazy, perverted freak,” Levi muttered into his mug of tea.

“But it was such an interesting time back then!” Hange twisted on her stool so she could properly frown in Levi’s direction. “Social mores were broken left and right due to the collapse of organized civilization. Long established cultural lines were crossed, taboos were forgotten – it was a basic free- for-all on so many levels.”

“I think you just want to know how people got off back then, which obviously these two brats can’t help you with,” Levi shot back, not about to waste his time catering to Hange’s perverted tastes. He gave her a warning glare before sipping his tea.

“What, you *actually* believe that we didn’t have sex back then?”

The question, stated with such blatant incredulity and by *Eren* of all people, had Levi choking on the tea he had just swallowed. Coughing it back up, he stared in confusion at the brat, while Hange crowed in delight.

“Really! So you’re sexually active?”

“Of course we are.” Eren kept glancing back between her and Levi, his brows furrowed, while Mikasa shook her head and tugged up her scarf as if to indicate she didn’t want to take any part in the conversation.

“How- how is that possible?” Levi demanded to know while he searched about for something clean to use to wipe himself. Moblit paused in typing to hand him a towel, a leery look on his normally passive face as if waiting for the current conversation topic to blow up.

Eren’s expression of disbelief morphed into exasperation. “Well, first you use this product called lube, because it’s painful as hell if you don’t. Then you-“

“I *know* how two guys have anal sex, you shitty brat!” Levi snapped, the towel clenched in his right fist. “I want to know how it’s possible a fucking kid like *you* can have sex!”

“Maybe because I’m *not* a ‘fucking kid’?" Eren’s eyes took to glowing as he leaned in Levi’s direction. “Yeah, the package might not be the most mature, but it’s in perfect working order!”

Hange jumped onto her feet and began to circle the two siblings. “Oh, I really want to run several blood panels on the two of you! See what hormones remain unaffected by the change. What are the cellular and DNA changes? Are you still fertile?”

The last question made Eren become pale beneath his tan skin color and Mikasa produce a strangled sound. “No… no pregnancies,” Mikasa whispered. “That’s… why are we even talking about this?” She glared at Levi as if it was his fault.

Finished drying the tea spots from his jacket, Levi shrugged and refused to feel guilty. “It’s for the good of science, so suck it up.” He was still trying to grasp the fact that Eren, bratty-looking Eren, wasn’t a virgin. So much for that startled reaction during training. “So what, you have sex with guys? They actually like the jail-bait look,” he asked while staring at Eren.

In the process of tucking back his long bangs, Eren paused and frowned, as if surprised at being asked the question. “Uhm, the ‘older’ guys do – it became creepy to sleep with the younger ones after a few decades. But unless I tell the guy something about my past, which I quickly learned not to do, then yeah, it’s basically going after the ones who have a thing for the younger looking partners.” He continued to stare at Levi, his eyes going wide, his lower lip relaxing slightly, his whole demeanor changing somehow to make him appear younger, more innocent, more vibrant…. “Are you one of them, Captain Napoleon?”

“Wha?”

Levi ignored Hange’s mangled question while he stared back at Eren, for a moment distracted by the sight of him. Then the meaning of the words sunk in, the odd nickname and then he scoffed. “I think I hit your head too hard earlier if you believe I’m one of those sick fucks, brat.”

Mikasa mumbled something into her scarf while Eren smirked, the illusion from before shattered. “Shame, because fourteen centuries of experience isn’t something to easily dismiss.” Then he yelped in pain when his sister punched him in the left thigh. “I was only joking! Like I’d really follow through.”

“Wow, that’s an entirely new topic of research that I need to follow up on,” Hange remarked as she frantically added new notes into her book. “Maybe we can make some demonstration videos-“

“I will beat your shitty head in!” Levi shouted while even Moblit appeared appalled at what his beloved captain was planning. “How the *fuck* does that have to do with curing Malform attacks?!”

“Exactly!” Mikasa cried out as she jumped to her feet, standing in front of her brother as if a living shield. “I thought we were supposed to help you fight, not put on shows for deviants!”

Hange’s jaw dropped as she glanced back and forth between the two of them. “That’s – I didn’t – dammit, it’s almost worth it to see the two of you agreeing on something.” She grinned when Levi noticed Mikasa staring in horror at him.

Meanwhile, Eren peeked around his sister. “Uhm, can this mean we’re finished for the day?”

Not seeing how they could really recover from something like this and needing to just go back to his quarters where it was quiet, Hange-free and relatively sane, Levi nodded. “I’ll send Erd to get you about two hours after dinner is over; Mikasa will go out with Hange and Eren will be with me.” When it looked as if Mikasa was ready to argue with the two being split up, Levi held up his right hand. “It’ll look less suspicious if we’re taking the two of you out on normal patrols to show you the routes.”

The siblings exchanged a quick look, and something that Eren did seemed to calm Mikasa down. “All right,” she said as she fussed again with her scarf. “Let’s go.”

“It’s been…” Eren wrinkled his nose as he fell into step beside his sister. “Yeah, definitely a day that stands out, which is saying something.” He didn’t elaborate any more as he walked out of the room.  
  
Finished with her notes, Hange looked up and beamed at Levi. “Well, I feel like I have something to work with, how about you?”

Levi didn’t answer for several seconds, only staring at her as if she were a blithering idiot. Then he shook his head and headed for the door as well with the intention of imbibing a few drinks before dinner. Before the door closed, he heard her berating poor Moblit for the notes he’d taken during the ‘interview’.

*******

Eren followed Captain Ackerman and Erd Jinn out into the dome’s streets, mindful to keep his head down in case he caught the scent of a Malform – he didn’t want people to notice his eyes flaring in reaction due to how starved he was just then.

“Any idea where we should start, Stieger?”

Eren considered the captain’s question for a moment, mentally going through what he had marked as *his* territory in the dome. “I usually find something to eat around Court Street.” There was an entrance to the tunnels there, so the Malform would always linger around a convenient place to hide.

Captain Ackerman peered over his shoulder to give Eren a displeased look. “You can’t think of anyplace closer? That’s halfway across the damn dome.”

“Anyplace else and we run the risk of stumbling across Mikasa,” Eren pointed out with as innocent a smile as he could muster while his stomach was cramping with hunger. “Perhaps the two of you could continue your lesson from earlier, Sir.”

He swore that he saw Erd bite his lip in an attempt to stifle a smile while ‘Napoleon’s’ eyes became even narrower. “Seems to me that you’re the brat who still needs some lessons pounded into that thick head of yours,” Captain Ackerman threatened before looking ahead.

Great, nothing like being caught between a pissing match between an asshole with an inferiority complex and Mikasa with her protective instincts in high gear, Eren thought to himself as he rubbed the back of his head. Maybe he could hide out in the lab with Armin? It would be worth a few pokes and blood samples to be spared the drama of the next ‘training’ session.

The streets at this time of night were basically empty, considering the previous day’s attack. There were other members of the Freedom Corps out and about on patrols, a couple of which gave the three of them some curious glances which Captain Ackerman and Erd utterly ignored. Since Eren was gaining the impression that most of the 104th had a healthy dose of fearful respect for the short bastard of a captain, he could understand Captain Ackerman’s logic of ‘don’t give them a reason for being out because we don’t need one’. People would wonder about his presence with the two ‘older’ Corps fighters… but they would wonder regardless of any given reason, so best to just let them settle on Captain Ackerman was doing things his way and that Captain Hange and Commander Smith were humoring him, as always.

They did run across a few MPs along the way to Court Street, one who was too busy playing something on a datapad while his partner cheered him on to pay them much attention and another pair busy talking on their comms. Eren had to hold back a growl at the sight of them slacking off, memories vivid of the days when the young men and women used to give their lives to restore order to the rebuilding communities. This was what the Military Police had become? This was the legacy that his friends Gerd, Sonja and Francesc - along with so many others - had died for so many years ago?

“Are you finding anything yet? We’re only a couple of blocks away.” Captain Ackerman sounded annoyed, his expression the bored mask that he wore so often yet his hands hovered around the hilts of his weapons. Standing next to him, Erd kept glancing around as if expecting Malform to leap out at any second.

Still upset about the MPs, Eren shook his head and let out a low curse as he pulled off his gloves; if he had to unsheathe his claws, the dense grey fabric would get in the way. “No, but they probably will be closer to the street.” He doubted that they’d be too far from the tunnels right now, not that he wanted to mention the escape route to the captain. “They’re most likely hiding after yesterday.”

“Hey! What are you doing- oh, it’s you guys.” A bright light was flashed there way, making Eren hiss for a moment and struggle not to ‘fang out’ as two people approached. Since he’d smelled more humans, along with leather and the metallic tang of gauntlets, he had assumed that they were either more Freedom Corps or MPs and that they’d react the same way that the others had earlier – which was basically leaving the three of them alone.

“Get that fucking light out of our faces, you shit for brains,” Captain Ackerman gritted out at the approaching MPs. “Who was stupid enough to let you out of your cribs for the night?” He casually stepped in front of Eren and tilted his left blade just enough to smack him on the knee-cap; Eren got the hint that he was to stay back and kept blinking his eyes to help restore his disturbed night vision.

The taller of the two MPs came to a stop in front of Levi while his shorter partner lingered several feet away. “Hey, you guys usually travel in pairs, not threesomes so we had to make sure.” He seemed to peer in Eren’s direction. “So, on the topic of cribs, are you raiding them now? Don’t you have an age requirement?”

“We recruit based on talent, which is something the MPs should look into,” Captain Ackerman shot back as he tugged on the left sleeve of his jacket.

Not about to stand there and be insulted by someone who looked like a horse – and what was with that undercut hairstyle? Was it the required one for assholes in domes this year? Eren huffed as he tucked back the strands falling into his eyes. “If they did that, Sir, then there wouldn’t be any MPs. Everyone knows that the only ones who join are lazy pricks who look forward to spending their days kissing ass.”

It was worth the smack to his knee – much harder this time – to see Horse-Face appear so stunned at the insult. His long, narrow face became flushed and his jaw dropped open for several seconds, then snapped shut as he lunged forward. “You little shit, I’ll-“

Before he could get within a couple of feet of Captain Ackerman, the MP’s partner, a shorter kid with a shaved head, grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him back. “Jean! We have to finish our patrol and report back or we’ll be in trouble! Come on!”

The taller MP produced a frustrated growl and waved his fist in Eren’s direction. “We’ll finish this later!”

“How fucking cliché,” Eren muttered as he watched the MPs run off, and then almost yelped in surprise when Captain Ackerman spun around and nearly stepped up into his face. “What?”

“Do you not understand the concept of ‘don’t draw attention to yourself', you shitty brat?” He reached out to grab hold of Eren’s white shirt and pulled him even closer, until their noses nearly touched. His breath smelled fresh, like minty toothpaste; each time he breathed, Eren could also pick up the aroma of soap, shampoo and beneath it, the man’s unique scent. “What the fuck possessed you to mouth off like that?”

Feeling himself become flushed for some reason, Eren struggled to control his teeth and fangs. “Because I’m tired of seeing those damn MPs walking around all the time as if they own the domes! They used to stand for something, used to do more than just boss people around! At one time they would die for people and now they’re just a bunch of dogs for rich bastards!” He bared his teeth, aware that his fangs had begun to show.

Captain Ackerman stared at him for what felt to be minutes before letting him go with a rough shake. “They get on all of our nerves, kid. Don’t go stirring shit with them without my permission or I’ll give your head a kick, you understand?”

“Yes, Sir.” Eren tugged his shirt back in place.

Erd pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against while the captain had been taking Eren to task and motioned in the direction that the MPs had gone off in. “Well, one good thing about this is that they’ll definitely believe that Eren’s your protégé, Sir. After that little display, everyone will trust that you’re training him up right.”

Captain Ackerman shot his second a sour look for that observation, while Erd had a slight smile on his face as if he was trying to be helpful. Eren huffed at the men’s antics and upon inhaling, caught a familiar scent.

“Actually, I think we really do need to thank those idiots,” he told his companions as he took a few steps forward. “Them being so loud attracted a certain attention.” Sniffing again, he attempted to narrow down where the scent was coming from, turning his head to and fro. “This way,” he told them as he held up his left arm and shot out a rappelling dart, barely resisting the urge to use his claws to climb the walls.

Eren heard the captain mutter something about damn brats as he and Erd followed, swinging through the streets as Eren tracked down the Malform as swiftly as possible. He thought it may have been tracking prey, but as he approached, it switched directions as if looking for somewhere to hide. Swinging in fast, he managed to block it in a closed alley, landing at the entrance with Captain Ackerman and Erd joining him within seconds. The Malform huddled toward the end wall, fangs bared and hissing, fear radiating from it in a strong stench that made Eren want to gag.

Captain Ackerman stood to his right and motioned at the creature with one of his blades. “Well, are you going to eat?”

“Just a minute, Sir. Something doesn’t seem ri-“ Just then, the Malform launched itself forward, but not at Eren. It angled its leap at the captain and Erd, clearly intent in taking on the two humans. Eren growled as he leapt as well, into the air to meet it. The Malforms claws dug at his arms and shoulders, a flash of pain that was easy to ignore with the hunger spurring him on; he wrapped his hands around its neck and twisted sharply until bones snapped, the two of them falling to the ground. With the Malform beneath him, he sunk his teeth into its neck, the feel of warm, thick blood flowing into his mouth would be heavenly if not for the bitter tang of fear so heavy in it. Still, he was so hungry….

The sound of someone gagging brought him back to himself – he opened his eyes to see Erd slumped against the wall, his hands covering his mouth. Captain Ackerman was still for a moment and then began to step forward, only coming to a stop about a foot away from Eren and the quietly hissing Malform. He crouched down in front of them, his eyes intent on Eren’s face, and the attention made Eren pause in his feeding and growl once in warning. When the captain continued to only stare, he resumed his meal, desperate for the blood. Between the fight the other day, the lack of feeding and the injuries, he drank a lot more than usual. Eventually sated, he let go of the Malform and sat back on his heels, feeling languid from all of the blood.

“All done now?”

He started at the captain’s voice and smiled, the expression a bit rueful. “Yeah, I guess.” He made to wipe at his face with his sleeve and then remembered that he was wearing light grey. When he saw a blade rush forward, he was quick to jump back, but it was just the short bastard chopping off the head of the Malform. “Hey, some warning!”

The bastard let out an amused snort as he pulled out a cloth to wipe his blade clean. “It needed to be done.” The look he gave Eren made it clear that *he* wasn’t doing it. Eren wasn’t in the mood to say he usually tore their heads off, but guessed that was a bit messy in his new, *light* uniform. He was pondering what to do about his face again when the captain pulled out something from one of his pockets and handed it over. The chemical stink warned Eren was it was before he touched it, and he flinched from accepting it; the memories of chemical showers, the way the odor clung to his skin, his hair….

Captain Ackerman made that annoying tsk’ing sound of his and grabbed a handful of Eren’s *hair* of all things, yanking on it to pull him close. Protesting from the painful hold, Eren soon shut up in an attempt to hold his breath as the awful cloth was rubbed against his *face*, his eyes screwed shut and lips pressed together as the wetness swiped all over it.

Finally, it ended. “What are you, a big baby,” the bastard teased as the hold on his hair was released.

Eren glared as he scrubbed the left sleeve of his jacket over his face to get rid of the awful chemical feel. “You try using one of those things when you can *sense* them so strongly!” he spat. Now he’d be smelling it all night, until he got back to the base and showered.

For his troubles, the arrogant, *insensitive* bastard rolled his grey eyes at him and handed him the bloodied wipe. “Here, make sure to get rid of that.” Then he turned on his heel and sauntered away, hands resting lightly on the hilts of his blades. He didn’t even pause as he went past a visibly shaken Erd, who straightened up and made an effort to pull himself together as he fell in step beside him.

Biting back on a snarl, Eren crumbled the wipe in his hand and hurried after the two, wishing that he had some excuse for mistaking ‘Napoleon’ as a meal. Oh, he wouldn’t really feed off of the bastard, just take a bite or two to satisfy his temper just then. Dumping the foul-smelling wipe in the incinerator out on the main street, he took his position at Captain Ackerman’s right, feeling a little out of sorts from his foul mood and scrambled senses. Besides the cleaning chemicals, the fear scent from the Malform clung to him, still left an acrid taste in his mouth, to the point that he wished for a cup of coffee as well as a shower when he got back ‘home’.

Thoughts drifting a bit from the post-feeding haze and the fact that the two Freedom Corps fighters didn’t seem in a mood to talk now that their task for the night was done, Eren was more or less on auto-pilot just then, following them as they chose a path back to headquarters. He wasn’t aware of the streets around him at first, until he caught sight of a certain landmark out of the corner of his eye. Then it was as if his body reacted without thought, his feet moving before he could stop them, body going at full speed down the block toward a certain crevice between two buildings, too small to properly be called an alley. All he was sure about was that the fear that clung to him, that flavored each swallow he took, had become overwhelming enough to kick off his instincts.

He came back to himself in front of the small panel that was one of the entrances to the tunnels that lead out of the dome; the metal sheet old and blending in with the rest of the wall. To most people it looked as if it covered a service panel – either electronics or plumbing, the access port long broken. Eren could open it, but if he went inside it would mean leaving Mikasa and Armin behind, a fact that finally brought him to his senses. He realized that it was the Malform’s fear that had driven him here, his own instincts reacting when it recognized a familiar escape route. Perhaps he didn’t trust Captain Ackerman as much as he thought….

Speaking of which – he spun around as he heard something flying through the air, right before they arrived a moment later to drop at the front of the ‘alley’. They must have taken to the air as soon as he’d run off, and judging from the look on Captain Ackerman’s face, the man was *pissed*.

“What the hell was that about!” the captain demanded to know as he stormed into the cramped passage, causing Eren to take a defensive step back. There was just enough room for Eren to extend his arms out on both sides, but the evident fury the man radiated made the narrow space seem even smaller.

About to explain himself, Eren stopped when he thought if he really wanted the Freedom Corps to know about the tunnels – what if he, Mikasa and Armin had to flee at some point? “I… just needed some space,” he said, wincing internally at how pathetic the excuse sounded.

The way the captain’s eyes narrowed in anger should have been some sort of warning, but Eren was nervous at the weak lie and fighting his own instincts just then, busy trying to see some way out of this mess. The kick aimed at his head was very fast for a human and struck with surprising force – enough to let him know that the captain had indeed held back some during their training earlier. Still, he struggled not to lash back on his own, to take the blow that knocked a tooth free and him to his knees instead of launching himself at the shorter man and ripping out his throat.

Spitting out the tooth and a mouthful of blood, he glared at the bastard through the hair falling onto his face and rubbed at his once more bloody mouth. “Feel better now?”

Captain Ackerman frowned for a moment before letting out a slow breath and reaching down to pull Eren up by the front of his jacket. “Listen, you little shit, I know you’re lying. Don’t make me hit you again – tell me why you went off like that.” When all Eren did was stare back at him, his expression turned carefully blank as he looked away, at the alley around them. “It’s about something here, isn’t it? You’re hiding something. I wonder what that could be….”

Dammit, why did the man have to be smart as well as vicious? Eren attempted to pry off the hands gripping his jacket. “It was just the first place I could find that I thought might offer me a few minutes away from you, Sir.” He drawled out the title as much as possible.

His insolence earned him a shake from the bastard. “I can have the rest of my squad and Hange here in twenty minutes to check this place over, you know,” Captain Ackerman told him. “Maybe even some people from the Engineers. I hear that they’ve been trying to find these rumored tunnels connecting the domes to each other – I would think that some brats that have been around since the domes were built might know about things like that.”

Judging from the way that the captain stared intently at him as he spoke, he was making more than a guess just then. Eren swore under his breath and dared to smack the hands holding onto him. “So what if I do?”

Something dark flashed across Captain Ackerman’s face at the question. “Were you trying to escape just now?” he asked as he dragged Eren in close.

“Fuck you.” Eren finally had enough and lashed out, hitting the bastard in the stomach, but the man just wouldn’t let go. He got a punch to the jaw and what was meant to be a knee to the stomach, but he blocked it in time and managed to tackle the captain to the ground. Off in the distance, he heard Erd yelling at them, but his attention was on taking down the arrogant asshole who thought that Eren was some kid he could just boss around.

They ended up rolling on the ground, and Eren grinned at the thought of the poor guy ruining another uniform that day. There was the sound of a blade being drawn, a warning that the asshole wasn’t relying on fists and feet anymore, and then Eren was on his back with steel at his throat.

“Listen up, you little shit, you’re going to behave and answer my fucking questions or we’ll see how well you heal from a slit throat!” Captain Ackerman had a bruise forming on the left side of his jaw, his black hair was tousled and falling into his eyes and his expression was the most livid that Eren had seen it yet – even after Mikasa had finished with him earlier.

Eren grinned up at him and flexed his claws the slightest bit, causing those grey eyes to go wide. “You might want to shift that blade back a little, or do you think you can cut faster than I can slice?” It seemed that someone had just realized where Eren had his right hand. “Trust me, femoral arteries bleed out like a *bitch*.” He rested his hand a little heavier on the captain’s left thigh.

“Have the two of you come to your senses ye- ah, I’m going to go make sure no one comes by here.” Erd turned his back to them and went to the front of the alley. Eren was actually feeling a little bad for all the poor man was going through tonight since he seemed pretty decent.

Ignoring his squad member, Captain Ackerman continued to glare at Eren. “Two questions. Were you trying to escape, and what’s so important about this alley?” The arm across Eren’s chest increased its pressure, but the blade along his neck lifted the slightest bit.

Wondering what it was about this man that got under his skin so much, Eren closed his eyes for a few breaths. When he opened them again, he found the captain gazing at him intently, as if trying to puzzle him out. “Technically, it seems as if the one question would answer the other.” When the glare returned, he sighed and rolled his eyes. “No, I wasn’t trying to escape. The Malform was so rank with fear that I guess it overloaded me with it, too. If I’m not careful, if I stop thinking or ‘zone out’ too much, instincts can take over. This was one of those times – only it wasn’t so much *my* instincts. I got sucked in by its fear and when I saw an escape route… I took it without thinking.”

The captain leaned back a little, the blade pulling away an inch or two. “So there is a tunnel here.”

Mikasa was most likely going to kill Eren for this. “Yes. It’s probably why the Malform was in the area in the first place.” As the blade pulled back a little more, Eren let his hand fall from the captain’s thigh.

“And you weren’t intentionally planning on running away.”

Why was he so stuck on that? “No, not when it would mean leaving Mikasa and Armin behind.”

That didn’t seem to reassure the man too much judging from the return of the glare, but at least he was now sheathing the weapon. “So is this ‘instinct’ thing a result of the change you went through after the Malform attack?” Captain Ackerman asked as he stood up. The glare morphed into a displeased frown as he noticed the dirty state of his uniform.

Grateful that the bastard was distracted by his appearance, Eren shrugged as he rose as well. “Yeah,” he lied. Amused by how the captain fussed over his uniform, he suddenly remembered his tooth from earlier and went in search of it, finding it after a minute. At the curious look he received, he shrugged again. “It’s not good to leave evidence like this behind.”

“I’m sure Hange will be delighted to have something to study,” Captain Ackerman remarked as he fussed with his gloves.

Eren gave him a sour look as he tucked the tooth in one of the pouches on his belt. “Oh, wonderful. I’ll be sure to let people kick out more of them just to make her happy.”

“Don’t see why you’re complaining, you got a free grope out of it in the end.” That said, the insufferable bastard sniffed and went to join Erd out in the street.

Eren stared after him for a few seconds in shock. “How the hell was *that* me groping you?” he shrieked as he ran after the two. Perhaps he should seriously consider that escaping thing….

*******

Armin hurried after Captain Hange, grateful to be away from the Freedom Corps for the day. It had been rather tense being around Mikasa and Eren since yesterday, ever since they had spent some time with Captain Ackerman. Not even going out feeding the night before seemed to put the siblings in a better mood.

At least he was given a break from both being constantly accosted by Captain Hange and being forced to act as if he knew how to fight as if he was Mikasa or Eren – the siblings had done what they could over the years to teach him basic defensive skills, yet he knew his best chances for survival were to run and hide while leaving the fighting to them. The training session yesterday with the rather scary individual, Captain Zacharius, had just driven that point home. It didn’t help that the odd man had constantly sniffed at him while beating him down into the ground….

At least Hange and her rather stressed second in command Moblit Berner seemed decent, even if the man had stayed behind at headquarters today. Since there shouldn’t be much to collect at the small apartment that Armin had shared with Mikasa and Eren, he and Captain Hange would be able to collect it between the two of them.

“So in your opinion, how long should they go without another night-time excursion,” Captain Hange asked as they headed in the direction that Armin had told her once they left the base.

It took Armin a moment to realize what the question exactly meant, since the captain was trying not to be too explicit. “Uhm, they should be good for several days, unless something happens to injure them or demand too much physical exertion from them.” He didn’t think it was betraying his friends to supply that information, especially since they had a session with Captain Hange yesterday.

The answer seemed to please the woman, as she smiled and reached for the ever-present notebook she carried and made a quick notation. “Good. I would think it would last them a while, considering the ratio of human population to what we’ve surmised as… well, you know, but it’s nice to have it basically established. Though Levi might be unhappy to know that his romantic strolls will be curtailed.” She did this thing with waggling her eyebrows that frankly disturbed Armin, especially in the context of Captain Ackerman, ‘romantic’ and anything that remotely had to do with Eren – he had the feeling if he reported this information to Mikasa that she’d go on a rampage, especially since she was extremely protective of Eren in matters such as these. He knew that there were things that the siblings were hiding from him, mostly to do with anything that they had dubbed ‘the others’, but there were also a few things over the years such as how they’d sometimes manage to get legal documents and establish identities between the domes so easily. He also knew that it was a sore point for Mikasa, one that Eren was quick to dance around whenever possible. For a supposedly bright person, he could put two and two together, especially after the way Eren had left the one night back at Mosca….

He realized that Captain Hange had called his name and blinked his eyes at her as he did his best to focus on the present. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

“I was just saying that it must have been challenging growing up, with two people who have… well, we’ll call them ‘food allergies’.” The captain’s smile was more amused than sympathetic at the moment, as if she thrived on the challenge of continuing the topic of Eren and Mikasa while out in public.

Scratching at the back of his head while he wondered if this woman *ever* dropped a topic she found interesting, Armin shrugged to show that he didn’t have any upset feelings. “Actually, Eren’s a really good cook. Just because they don’t like to eat a lot doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy tasting good food, so he’d make stuff from their childhood.” Armin paused and again hoped that he didn’t give too much away. “I think it helps them, the good memories.”

Captain Hange appeared to consider that as they approached the apartment. “Food and the senses it evokes – smell, taste and vision – would be a strong tie to memories. It makes sense.” Then she took to cackling in that disturbing manner of hers. “Oh, this just keeps getting better and better!”

Afraid to ask her what that meant, Armin was relieved to see that they had reached the apartment building. “We’re here!” He took to the steps leading upstairs with more enthusiasm than usual, preferring the exercise to being trapped in an elevator with the over-inquisitive woman.

The apartment was just how they’d left it before going to the market the other day; Armin felt a pang of regret that the quiet days when it was just him, Mikasa and Eren seemed to be behind them, that their ‘simple’ plan of him attending the University had been so drastically altered even if their goal was still in sight.

“Is this… really where you all lived?” Hange turned around a couple of times while she surveyed the small apartment.

“Yeah.” Armin blushed a little as he imagined what she was thinking. “Since I hacked the system for our living quarters, I couldn’t risk giving us anything too extravagant. Besides, this isn’t too bad, considering some of the other places we’ve lived.”

Standing with her fists on her hips, the Freedom Corps captain regarded him with a carefully blank expression for a few seconds before shaking her head. “So, what do we need to take back?” Her brow furrowed as she glanced around. “There doesn’t seem to be much here – no wonder you said the two of us could carry everything.” A flash of interest broke over her face when she noticed the stack of books on the desk in the corner of the main room. “Ah, there are my books!”

Deciding to let the ‘my’ part go, Armin went over to the desk to gather the datapads and the important hard drives. “If you want them, you can take them – I already scanned them.” He held up the three hard drives. “This is really want we came for, these and a few change of clothes. Any time I find some books, we scan them so the knowledge is saved digitally.”

The captain practically lunged at him, stopping herself just short of snatching at the drives. “How much information do you have?” she asked, her voice almost at the level of a shout.

Doing his best not to flinch, Armin took a half-step back. “Uhm, it’s about ten terabytes now.”

“Ten!” Captain Hange clutched at his arms and moaned, sounding in pain. “How did you gather so much data?”

Wondering if he should have brought Mikasa along after all, Armin did his best to squirm away. “Be careful about the drives!” That worked to make the crazy captain release him. “Mikasa and Eren have been working on this for a long time! I’ve done my best to help out however I can, but it’s really their hard work,” he explained.

Looking as if she was about to drool at any moment, Captain Hange moaned again, her eyes a bit glazed behind her glasses. “You said that you had important research here, but I never could have imagined….” She reached for him again, this time to pull him in for a hug. “We’re going to have so much fun going through those drives!”

“Uhm, yeah, okay,” Armin mumbled, wondering if he was ever going to be let out of the woman’s lab now. At least he had learned things from her already. “Why don’t I get everything else so we can leave?”

He was let go so quickly he nearly fell to his knees. “Great idea!” The drives were snatched from his hands, Captain Hange cradling them in her arms as if they were infants. “I’ll take care of these precious babies,” she crooned.

Captain Ackerman was right, the woman *was* insane, Armin thought to himself as he hurried to gather everything that they would need; Eren and Mikasa always kept on them the few items that they refused to be parted with, other than the hard drives which were too fragile to be carried everywhere, so most of the other stuff were just some clothes and personal odds and ends. Within a few minutes, he had the things gathered into a spare bag and was ready to leave. Because of them traveling so much over the years, it was a skill he had honed to perfection and he was used to leaving both things and places behind.

Once they were done, he headed for the door without looking behind – if there was one thing he had learned over the years, it was to always look ahead. Captain Hange gave him odd little glances out of the corner of her eye as if he wasn’t aware of her attention, which he was careful to ignore, and soon enough they were back on the street. She cleared her throat a few times and then went on about how excited she was about the hard drives – as if he wasn’t perfectly mindful of that – and began planning out what exactly they would do as soon as they got back to headquarters. Since he didn’t think he had much of a chance of dictating anything, Armin merely let her go; as long as he got to learn something, he’d be happy. If at some point he needed to take control he’d do his best to do so, and if his best wasn’t good enough, he’d call in Mikasa for help.

His attention wandering around as Captain Hange prattled on, he spotted what he thought was a familiar face standing on a street corner – Eren and Mikasa’s friend Ymir. The dark-skinned woman grinned at him, the expression almost predatory, and then she vanished into the crowd.

His throat going dry and his heartbeat speeding up, Armin did his best to hide his emotions while following Captain Hange back ‘home’ – he knew that Eren and Mikasa had an odd relationship with the mysterious woman, that she was technically one of the ‘others’ yet the siblings trusted her… somewhat. Did it really matter that she’d seen him in a Freedom Corps uniform? Neither Eren nor Mikasa were around, so Ymir might not make the connection that they had joined the organization as well. Would she even care? Other than helping the siblings with some favors now and then – never without a price – she always did her own thing as far as Armin could tell. He needed to talk to Eren and Mikasa.

The trip back to the Freedom Corps base left him high-strung, on high alert for any sighting of Ymir that he could catch, yet he didn’t see the woman anywhere. Had he imagined her that one time? Meanwhile, Captain Hange became more hyper the closer they came to headquarters, and was actually hauling him along once they crossed through the front gate.

“I- I want to let Eren and Mikasa know that I have their stuff!” Armin shouted as they crossed the courtyard, doing his best to dig in his heels.

“Pfft, Levi’s having them swing through the rappelling courses today. Trust me, you do *not* want to be anywhere near that, considering what went down yesterday. He’s probably having Mikasa spin enough to make her puke right now.” Captain Hange slowed down enough for a moment as she seemed to consider something. “Can she puke?”

Armin really didn’t want to find out. “Uhm, she did have some coffee and toast at breakfast, so I think it’s possible.” Oh, Captain Ackerman *really* didn’t know what he was in for if he continued on this course of action, but it wasn’t Armin’s problem. Deciding that he didn’t want to get in the middle of that particular war right now, he allowed himself to be dragged back to the lab.  
The rest of the day basically went the way that Armin had expected – Captain Hange cracking upon one of the hard drives and diving into it with maniacal glee, even sending out poor Moblit for food and drink rather than break for lunch. As much as Armin wanted to seek out Mikasa and Eren, he found himself distracted by the lure of science, with the chance to talk about hypotheses and past research with someone who actually understood everything for once. He was debating the possibility of Grisha Jaeger using retro-viruses with the captain when there was a beeping noise.

Captain Hange blinked her eyes several times as if forced abruptly back to reality and patted around the top of the tabletop until she found the comm device. “What? We’re busy, Erwin.”

There was silence over the channel for a moment. “Sorry to bother you, Hange, but here I thought I might have something of interest for you.” Commander Smith’s voice was deceptively mild, containing only the slightest hint of sarcasm. “I thought you, as well as Levi, might be interested in two new recruits being brought to my office.”

Heaving a loud sigh, Captain Hange tapped her fingers near the comm device. “So? What, am I the welcoming committee now? Let Levi and his sparkling personality scar them for life. I’m *busy*,” she snapped.

“Oh, so the fact that they said they’re friends of a certain pair of siblings isn’t a concern of yours,” Commander Smith drawled before the captain could hit the disconnect button.

A myriad of emotions flashed across Captain Hange’s face as her hand hovered over the unit. Then she seemed to settle on dubious as she glanced at Armin. “This isn’t a prank, is it? Like that time you told me you had a captive Malform only to get me out of the lab so it could be cleaned?”

“Hange, get your ass to conference room D. *Now*.” After that, the comm line went dead.

Huffing a little as if upset at being denied over having the last word, the captain hit the keys with an exaggerated effort to save her work on the datapad and then looked up at Armin. “Well? I’d think that you might have a clue about if these two recruits are any friends of Eren and Mikasa or not.”

“Uhm, it depends on how ‘old’ these friends are,” Armin pointed out, a sinking feeling building in his stomach. Maybe he should have made more of an effort to seek out the siblings when he had returned….

Following the captain through the hallways, Armin felt his steps grow heavier with each heartbeat. It seemed as if everyone was staring at him, as if people were whispering behind his back. Suddenly hating himself for allowing himself to be distracted, he found himself waiting for the captain to open a conference room door, a sense of dread building inside of his chest.

The door opened, and all that registered at first was that Mikasa and Eren were there, alive and well. Relief washed through him, until he realized that Eren was doing his best to hold back a furious Mikasa, her eyes glowing gold and her fangs out sharp and bright. Captain Ackerman was stationed in front of the two, his attention seemingly divided between Eren and the two people not dressed in Freedom Corps uniforms – a smirking Ymir and a pretty blonde girl who was pressed against her side, a worried frown on her face as she kept glancing back and forth between Ymir and Eren.

The door slammed shut behind Armin, making him jump in place. He turned to see Commander Smith, expression carefully neutral, nod to him and Captain Hange. “Welcome. Perhaps you can shed some light on this situation.”  
*******


	9. Night Glo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhm, it's another chapter. Feels like a lot of talking - next one will have a bit more action and see some more familiar characters appear. But there is a bit of relationship advancement (just a bit, but finally!).
> 
> Thanks again for all the comments and kudos!

*******

Levi watched as first Mikasa and then Eren landed in front of him, hair tousled and faces covered in sweat. The girl had completed the obstacle course with a surprising amount of grace and control, making only a few mistakes, while Eren… well, like much of what he’d done in the last couple of days, he managed through it with sheer determination and endless momentum – no wonder the brat kept making Levi forget that he was really centuries old. 

“Not bad. Bit more practice and a lot more polish, and you won’t shame the Corps too much,” he told the two, and allowed himself a small, pleased smile when Mikasa had to restrain her brother. 

“’Not bad’? How many new recruits can survive something like that,” the brat growled out while struggling against the arm his sister had thrown up against his chest. 

“How many new recruits join up already knowing how to use a gauntlet?” Eren became sullen at Levi’s retort, golden eyes cast downward as he slumped against Mikasa’s hold. She gave Levi a cold look while she urged her brother to step backward, clearly not over the drills Levi had put her through to ‘warm-up’ earlier, and the two took to huddling together, exchanging whispers too soft to be easily overheard.  
  
He allowed them their break, a little miffed to see that they’d worked through the animosity that had been clinging to them since they’d shown that morning for training, barely looking at each other. Since Mikasa had clearly been pissed off at Levi again, he’d go out on a limb and say that his treatment of her precious brother last night probably had something to do with the foul mood clinging to the siblings, and he’d taken some delight in the fact that the bitch hadn’t been able to direct any of her anger into fighting him. Instead, she’d learned the hard way that a bad mood and rappelling didn’t go together very well; you needed a lot of concentration to work a gauntlet correctly. 

Petra stepped forward while the brats continued their little chat, a tender smile on her face while she observed them. “So what’s next? They really are progressing faster than anticipated through the training program.” 

“We still have an hour left before dinner.” Levi hated to break early when he didn’t know if they’d manage to get the course to themselves like this for another day – Erwin was pushing for new recruits to sign up as quickly as possible, and the current Corps members needed to keep on top of their skills. “How about you and Olou do a bit of tag-“ He stopped short when his comm went off, signaling that the message came from Erwin. “Yes?” 

“Levi, I’ve just had two new recruits show up,” Erwin informed him, sounding somewhat distracted. “I’d like for you and the latest additions to your team to join me in conference room D.” 

Annoyed to be bothered with something like this when he had better things to do, Levi huffed while he motioned to Petra to follow his orders. “I’ve better things to do. Have Mike-“ 

Erwin cut him off, a hint of anger in his deep voice. “Two recruits who say they know the *Stiegers*, so you’ll be here within five minutes.” He didn’t add anything else before ending the conversation, but really, what else was needed? Huffing again as he ran a hand through his hair, Levi glared at nothing in particular before stalking over to the brats. 

“Come on, Commander Smith wants to see us,” he informed them before he jerked his head in the direction of the main building. “Petra, let Mike know that the course is open if anyone wants to do some training.” She hurried to do as she’d been told, while the brats stared at him with open suspicion without moving. “Have I not made myself clear?” he asked in a low voice, his eyes narrowed in anger. 

Eren started forward, a bit more acquainted with his temper by now than Mikasa. She hissed out her brother’s name and scurried to catch up, once more sending dirty looks Levi’s way while she clutched at Eren’s left arm as if it was a life line. 

“So, any idea what this is about?” the brat asked as he fell into step beside Levi, his right hand busy tucking back the dark brown strands that had fallen onto his face during the gauntlet training. He sounded tired, more tired than he appeared at the moment, as if he’d reached the limit of surprises for the day. Levi was rather familiar with the sensation. 

“Honestly? All I know is that there’s two new recruits who claim to know about you.” He didn’t see any reason to keep it a big secret since they were only a couple of minutes away from reaching the conference room. “You’ve got any friends in the dome that you’ve forgotten to mention to us?” 

Eren’s reaction was a wince and a curse, which might have to do with the fact that Mikasa seemed determined to cut off all of the blood-flow to his lower arm with the way she was gripping it so tightly. “No one we’d consider a friend,” she growled out, her voice savage and her eyes glowing. “Definitely-“ 

“Mikasa! There are others around,” Eren admonished her before Levi had the chance. 

A bright red flush covered the bit of cheeks not already hidden by the scarf; she ducked her head as if embarrassed, her shiny black hair falling forward to help obscure her eyes. “Sorry,” she mumbled, her face pressed against her brother’s shoulder. 

Eren merely shook his head in response, and Levi noticed his eyes were a bit brighter than normal. “Keep it together, or I’ll be knocking more teeth out.” 

Fortunately for all of them, they had just arrived at the room because Mikasa had given up on hiding her face to send Levi the most virulent scowl possible, Eren was doing his best to challenge his sister in that regard, and Levi had enough of the two of them; maybe they weren’t really kids, maybe they were a hell of a lot older than him but he was still their captain and they needed to show him some respect. 

Opening the door with a bit more force than was necessary, Levi then stepped inside, unsure of what he was expecting to find. That Erwin was there, his expression stern as if he expected to subdue any issues by his presence alone… yeah, that seemed par for the course. The lack of anyone else from the Corps wasn’t too surprising, not if the brats were involved. What had Levi coming to a halt and causing Eren to run into his back was the sight of a familiar brunette and blonde. 

“Oi, it’s the rude guy,” the brunette girl remarked to her blonde friend, who was standing damn near close enough to be her conjoined twin. “Why aren’t I surprised to see you?” 

“Ymir?” Eren shuffled over to Levi’s left side and gazed in obvious confusion at the two girls. “What the hell are you doing here?”  
  
The dark-haired girl – Ymir, apparently – rolled her eyes and gestured with her left hand, her right arm occupied with being draped over the blonde girl’s shoulders. “I told you that I needed to talk to you, right? Well, if Mohammed won’t go to the mountain, then the mountain will come to Mohammed.” 

“I guess this answers the question if they do know each other,” Erwin murmured, his attention riveted upon the ‘kids’.  

“You think?” Levi was about to say something equally sarcastic when Mikasa attempted to shove her way past him. 

“We don’t want anything to do with you! You should leave right now!” Mikasa appeared to be struggling to keep control of herself; she had the scarf tugged high over her mouth and her hair falling onto her face as if to hide the tell-tale aspects of her ‘fanging-out’, and her slender body was trembling with tension. 

All Ymir did was scoff and turn to better look at Eren, her dark eyes intent on the brat. “Go away, Mikasa, you don’t have anything that I need. This is between me and your brother.” 

“You’ll get *nothing*!” Mikasa lunged again at the other girl, her eyes aglow and the scarf fallen down her chin to reveal that her fangs were out. As if there were any doubt that these newcomers weren’t normal, the brunette simply laughed while Eren swore and did his best to prevent Mikasa from ripping out her throat, and the blonde huddled even more against her friend’s side.

It was about then that the door open to admit Hange and the brats’ friend, Armin, whose face blanched at the sight before him. The scrawny kid practically jumped when Erwin slammed the door shut to keep anyone else wandering into the melee. “Welcome. Perhaps you can shed some light on this situation,” he said to them – as if he’d been doing anything to help straighten out the situation that Levi could see since his arrival with Eren and Mikasa.

“Uhm… well, she’s sorta a friend of Eren’s and Mikasa’s,” Armin mumbled while doing his best to press against a wall, well away from the furious Mikasa.

“Yeah, we figured that out.” Levi joined Eren in hauling his sister back, seeing no need to be gentle about it. “Calm the *fuck* down, Stieger,” he ordered as he shoved her hard into a chair. “Do it before I kick your ass.”

“Oh, Shorty has some balls to him, doesn’t he?”

He whirled around to point a finger at the lippy bitch. “That goes for you, too. I don’t put up with assholes coming here to stir up shit.” The bitch – Ymir – stared at him with cold eyes until the blonde at her side tugged on her arm.

“Ymir, he’s right, we didn’t come here to cause trouble,” she admonished, her voice soft and pleading. “How is this going to get Eren to do us a favor, let alone get out of here alive?”

“It’s not,” Mikasa shouted, her eyes still golden even though Eren and Armin appeared to have calmed her down otherwise. “He’s not doing anything!”

Erwin finally stepped forward, his hands held up in a clear signal for silence. “I believe it’s time for some answers. Now, Ymir Tanzer and Krista Lenz, the two of you approached the Freedom Corps as potential recruits.” He lowered his hands and turned to regard the two ‘girls’. “Considering that you know of the ‘Stiegers’ and didn’t react in a surprised manner at Mikasa’s recent transformation, I believe that we can assume that there’s something unusual about you.” His hands continued to lower until they rested on the hilts of his blades. “Is there a reason why we shouldn’t allow Mikasa to remove your heads from your shoulders?” he asked with a slight smile on his lips, the expression in his blue eyes cold and calculating.

The smirk on Ymir’s lips was utterly wiped away by the question, to quickly be replaced by a red gleam in her eyes and a flash of sharp teeth. “Try to even *touch* Krista and I will gut you,” she snarled.

So the brats hadn’t been kidding about the ‘true vampires’, Levi thought as he drew his right blade. “As if you’ll even stand a chance.” Now that he had an idea of Eren’s true speed, he was willing to bet he could take the bitch down. Preparing to dart forward, he was stunned when Eren blurred into motion to put himself in front of the two girls.

“Will everyone calm the fuck down!” he cried out, his arms held out as if to hold back both Ymir and Levi. “Let’s hear why they came here, all right? Ymir’s not dumb enough to reveal herself without a good reason.”

Her fangs still out, Ymir scoffed as she forced herself to look away from Levi. “We figured if they hadn’t whacked you two, I should be fine.” She blinked a couple of times, her eyes slowly going back to normal, and grinned in Erwin’s direction. “Consorting with the enemy, Commander?”

“I fail to see anyone as an enemy when they kill Malforms,” he told her, his hands still on his hilts. “What about you? From what I understand, you’re little better than one.”

“Please don’t kill her until I can study her!” Hange wailed, pushing forward to get a better look at the brunette. Levi cursed the idiot and elbowed her back. “But she’s a true vampire! A real, live, true-“

“We know what she is, now shut up.” Levi shoved his obsessed friend over into the corner. He glanced back to find that the short blonde was now standing in front of her companion, clearly determined to protect her.

There was a fierce look on her pretty face as she glared at everyone in the room. “You’re not going to hurt Ymir!” Looking around, she focused on Eren. “I thought you were her friend!”

Appearing a bit sheepish, Eren tugged on his long bangs in a blatant sign of frustration. “Ymir, what the hell have you been telling this poor kid?”

“Aw, come on, Rebel, we’re the best of buddies, aren’t we?” Ymir grinned and wrapped her left arm around her… ‘friend’s’ waist.

“Just kill the lying bitch,” Mikasa muttered from across the room, still busy shooting dirty looks Ymir’s way. She didn’t even flinch at Hange’s anguished cry of denial.

Her cocky smile slipping, Ymir spared Mikasa a nasty look of her own. “Love you too, Sunshine.”

“Sure you do, that’s why you left us to fend for ourselves in Mosca.” Misaka jumped to her feet, yet this time she seemed content to stay where she was, her eyes back to their normal dark shade. “You didn’t care that we were counting on your help to set up the new identities, let alone get out of there!”

See, *this* was why Levi thought of these brats as ‘kids’, even if Hange kept insisting on the fact that they were centuries old – they sure as hell didn’t act that way most of the time; feeling a headache coming on, he clenched at the hilt of his blade as he sheathed the weapon and wished that there was something he could hit to take out the sense of building frustration. Then he noticed a hint of building panic on Eren’s expressive face.

“Uhm, Mikasa, now’s not the-“

Ymir cut him off as she gently pushed her blonde ‘friend’, Krista, aside and stalked toward Mikasa. “Look, you’re not the only ones trying to save your asses, alright? I couldn’t meet up with you guys for very good reasons of my own.” What looked to be a quick flash of guilt crossed over her face. “Besides, from what I hear, Eren took care of the situation for you just fine.” She managed a weak leer in his direction, seeming oblivious to the frantic shaking motion of his head. “Better not go back to that dome for a while, since it seems that Minister is holding out hope you’re still available, you were that good.”

It took Levi a moment to catch the insinuation – it didn’t help that Hange had crept up beside him, busy writing everything down in her notebook as if this was one grand experiment. “Did she just imply that Eren sold himself – ah, yeah, looks that way. *Interesting.*” Hange hummed as Mikasa first went pale, moaned low in her throat and then launched herself at Ymir.

“This is getting fucking ridiculous,” Levi grumbled, and was thankful that Erwin finally stepped in to grab the hyper bitch by the back of her jacket while Eren yelled at Ymir for being a loud-mouth idiot.

“Did you have to tell her that?”

“Sorry! I thought you didn’t keep anything a secret from Mommy there!”

Going over to the figure hunched in a chair, Levi grabbed a clearly miserable Armin by an arm and hauled him up. “Oi, are they friends or not?” He really wanted to know if the troublesome bitch should keep her head because she didn’t seem worth the headache right now.

“Yes, I’m wondering much the same thing myself,” Erwin remarked as he forced Mikasa several feet away from a now serious Ymir.

The true vampire straightened out the dark blue tunic she was wearing and glared at everyone except Krista. “Look, if I hadn’t have come here with peaceful intentions then you’d be dead. For the most part, I am Eren and Mikasa’s friend. Don’t really know Blondie too much over there, but that’s mainly because they’ve kept it that way.” For once there wasn’t any mocking tone to her voice.

Erwin looked over at the siblings, his jaw set tight and his eyes hard, most likely from the indirect threat Ymir had just made. “Do you consider her a friend?” When Mikasa started to speak, he held up his right hand. “I think we better hear from Eren right now.”

The brat let out a slow sigh and glanced at his sister, shrugging in regards to her still angry look. “I know she can be an asshole at times, but for the most part, we trust her.” His expression hardened as he glanced back at Ymir. “What I don’t trust is whatever she wants out of me so desperately, and why she’s risking herself like this. She’s always looked out for herself first.” That addendum appeared to placate Mikasa.

“Get to the part about what she is!” Hange whispered, the sound coming out as a hiss. “I *need* to *know*!”

Erwin shot Hange a warning look to be quiet, which she accepted with a huff and then settled into one of the chairs, a pout on her face and still busy writing in her precious notebook. Then he turned his attention back to Ymir and her mostly quiet companion. “Not exactly the best praise for you.”

Ymir shrugged, seeming unaffected by Eren's opinion. “It’s basically true. I do tend to look out for myself first.”

“That’s not true!” Krista pushed herself forward again while wearing a fierce frown. “She’s always taken care of me! She’s kept me safe, provided me shelter and she’s here today because of me!” The look she gave everyone in the room made it clear that she thought very little of them. “I won’t let you insult her like this!”

Ymir tried to calm down her companion by running her hands up and down the smaller girl’s arms. “Now Krista, Eren did have some good reasons for what he said. He really doesn’t know anything about you.”

“This is the first time I’ve even seen you.” Eren frowned as he stared at the girl, his expression changing into one of shock. “ _Holy fuck, Ymir, is she who I think she is? Isn’t she supposed to be dea_ -“

“ _Shut the fuck up, Rebel. Not another word on the topic right here,”_ Ymir snapped. _“Or should I bring up how old Blondie is over there? Do they know that part yet?_ ”

Levi surged forward to snatch at Eren’s left arm once they started speaking in gibberish – he could sorta make out the occasional word, but it sounded distorted, the accents all wrong. Was it some strange code based on English? “Speak normal!”

Mikasa gasped and her sharp gaze darted between the two girls. _“*You’re* what happened to the missing heir?”_

_“*Not* *another* *fucking* *word*!”_

“I told you shitstains to speak English!“ Levi gave Eren’s arm a rough shake, and ignored the bemused look the brat gave him in return.

Hange jumped up from her seat and laughed. “Uhm, I *think* they are speaking English, Sweetie. Pre-collapse English.” She cocked her head to the side and bit her lip. “Oh, I’d give your left hand right now to be recording this!”

The sound of a blade being drawn again caused everyone to go still, along with a sharp hiss from Ymir. Erwin stood in the center of the room with his right blade held up high, a very, *very* annoyed expression on his face. “All right, so far we’ve determined that Ymir is a true vampire yet is to be mostly trusted, that Eren and Mikasa mostly consider her a friend, and that she and Krista are here with *mostly* good intentions and to ask a favor from Eren. Excuse me if I consider the amount of time we’ve spent reaching those answers rather excessive and that there’s a good bit more information I’d like to know before I decide if I’m going to continue to allow a true vampire to continue to exist inside my base.” There was a distinctly sharp bite to his words which made it clear that he was not exaggerating the situation in the least. “Now, start talking in a language we can all understand and provide me those answers that I require.”

He sheathed his blade and motioned with his right hand at a rather subdued Ymir. “Who exactly are you, why exactly are you here and what *exactly* do you want?” Before she could speak, he turned to glance at everyone else. “The rest of you,” he paused to linger on Hange for a moment, “will be silent while she speaks.” The authoritative tone to his deep voice broke no arguments.

Having been through this ‘he who must be obeyed’ mode before, Levi used his hold on Eren’s arm to drag him over to the row of chairs and sat down, figuring he might as well be comfortable for the upcoming explanation. Mikasa hurried to take the empty seat next to her brother and sent Levi a simmering scowl for his audacity, and then saved the rest of her foul mood for Ymir, who stood there in front of the audience at a loss of word for a moment until Krista gave her a reassuring hug.

Pausing to give the small blonde a hug back, Ymir took a deep breath before working through Erwin’s demands. “All right, you’ll need a bit of patience with me – I don’t know what those two have told you about my kind.” When Hange began to wave her left hand in the air in a frantic manner, Erwin saved all of them from some crazed, drawn out explanation with one extremely stern look. “I mean, ‘true vampire’, what is that?” She scoffed a little and made a face, wrinkling her freckled nose. “I’ve no idea what the definition of a real vampire is.”

Unable to hold back, Levi clicked his tongue as he folded his arms over his chest. “Try looking in the mirror.”

His helpful comment earned him disproving looks from both Ymir and Erwin. “Yeah, well you’d be wrong, Shorty.” It was his turn to receive the ‘don’t push me’ glance from Erwin when he nearly jumped from his seat to teach the bitch some manners, so he sunk back down and glowered at her instead. “Because you see, I’m not really a vampire.”

Hange made a muffled sound of pain as if desperate to ask questions, Armin and Erwin appeared stunned while Eren and Mikasa sat there as if they had someplace better they’d like to be – Levi included them in the glower for a few seconds before sending it back in Ymir’s direction; the snarky bitch seemed to be enjoying herself now.

“Yeah, thought that might get your attention.” She shuffled herself and Krista back until they could lean against a table. “The memories are a bit hazy, both because it was so long ago and because things were absolute shit at the time, but all I know is somehow I came across what apparently was the last of the pureblood vampires, one weakened by daylight, and… well, somehow forced him to change me.” Her cocky attitude vanished as her eyes became unfocused, her voice quiet. “I think I was so desperate to try anything….” She didn’t speak for several seconds, until Krista whispered her name, causing her to shiver and shake her head. “Anyway, next thing I know is I’m changed, and it took me a while to snap back to my senses.” Judging from the amount of guilt in her expression, Levi didn’t think she’d stuck to just Malforms as food, like Eren and Mikasa.

“So you’re a human who turned into a vampire?” Armin asked, his voice quivering a little, either out of uncertainty and fear. “I thought that was how a lot of them were turned, according to the legends.”  
  
“*Exactly!*,” Hange shouted, nearly dropping her notepad out of exuberance. “I mean-“ Another stern look from Erwin had her clamping her mouth shut.

Ymir brushed back her bangs and shook her head. “I’ve been around a long time and I don’t really know how those assholes came about, all I know is once they found out that I was responsible for the death of the last pureblood, I’ve had a target painted on my back ever since. Also, do I like their ‘humans are food’ attitude? No. Believe that humans and ‘vampires’ can’t co-exist? Wrong again.” She looked over at Erwin. “I don’t have a problem with you protecting humanity – someone certainly has to do it. But it’s not all clear cut who the monsters are, human or ‘vampires’.

Erwin met her eyes, his gaze even, before he looked over at the siblings. “Is what she said true?”

Eren shrugged, the fingers of his right hand busy tracing along the cuff of his gauntlet. “As far as we know, yes. Part of the reason we’ve trusted Ymir is that we’ve an enemy in common.”

Erwin took a moment to consider that before turning back to the girls. “So how is Krista involved in this?”

The smaller girl started at the question, her blue eyes going wide. “Ah, well, Ymir helped me out at a difficult time, after my mother died.” Levi thought he saw Mikasa twitch at the revelation. “I’ve been with her ever since.”

Neither of them were exactly forthcoming with detailed biographies here, but Levi supposed it was difficult to trust in people who had threatened to cut off their heads a few minutes ago. Still, he knew when people were keeping something important from him, and these two were doing just that – and he was willing to bet a few pounds of tea that a certain brat had a good idea what some of that back-story happened to be, judging from the earlier exchange. He shot Eren a narrowed glance from the corner of his eye, and got a wide-eyed look in return.

Hands now resting on his hips, Erwin nodded in satisfaction as if pleased with the way the discussion was going. “So that brings us to the why of you coming here.” His gaze flickered to Eren. “It clearly wasn’t to join the Freedom Corps.”

Ymir’s brows drew together while she looked hard at Eren and Mikasa sitting next to Levi, her gaze seeming to linger on their uniforms. “Look, I won’t lie to you, we mainly came to wherever Eren was. But you know about him and Mikasa, you’re not harming them, and you’re taking me at face value. You know about the real vampires out there. They’re a big part of why we’re here. If you can accept Rebel and Sunshine, then I’ll meet you halfway.” A shaky grin spread across her face. “I mean, what’s another vampire helping the cause, right?”

“I’m not a fucking vampire,” Eren muttered, his face drawn into a scowl.

“Oh, get over yourself,” Ymir shot back. “You drink blood and you don’t age. That sure as hell doesn’t make you-“

“Enough,” Erwin snapped in a rare show of temper. “Us accepting you depends on why you’re really here.”

Ymir glared at him for a few seconds, showing that she really did have more balls than common sense, and then sighed. “Other than looking for a safe place to be, because we want Eren to turn Krista.”

It was official – Levi had reached his quota of idiots and drama for the day. He merely sat there while Mikasa *yet again* lunged for Ymir, shouting that there was no way in hell that she would allow her brother to be used like that, leaving it to Erwin and Armin to calm the spastic bitch down. Meanwhile, Krista was shouting, too, showing that she had a rather healthy set of lungs for someone so petite, claiming that she wanted this, that Mikasa shouldn’t deny her the right to ask Eren for something that Mikasa had been given herself. And if it wasn’t already enough of a clusterfuck, Hange joined the fray going on about that if anyone was going to be ‘turned’, that she deserved to be there front and center, recording the event for the benefit of science.

The only other person sitting out all of the bedlam was Eren, who didn’t move a single muscle – it was downright creepy how still he was – until Ymir started on about how controlling Mikasa could be and how she needed to back off ‘or else’. Yet to Levi’s surprise, instead of joining the burgeoning fight, Eren got up and quietly left the room. Intrigued by the brat’s behavior, he stood up as well and followed, only to find an empty hallway once outside. Cursing idiot kids who should know better about moving too fast, he headed in the most deserted direction he could find, hoping that Eren had the sense to avoid running into other people. The path eventually led him outside.

Great, where would an ancient yet bratty, perpetual teenager go hide? Levi took a few steps forward before he remembered the first time he saw Eren and thought to look up, and caught a hint of movement on top of the building. Hoping the damn brat had used the gauntlet to reach the roof, he raised his left arm and fired a rappelling dart, launching himself with ease upward until he landed beside a sitting Eren.

“So, did you suddenly decide to become antisocial or what,” he asked as he grimaced with distaste, eyeing the dark surface of the slanted roof. The fabricated tiles were going to be hell on his pants, he just knew it – the environment inside the domes was controlled, but that didn’t mean that shit like dust and exhaust didn’t make its way up here. Where was a dust rag when you needed one?

Eren’s head remained bowed but his shoulders twitched a little. “You know, the point of coming up here was for me to be alone. By myself. Without another soul. Hint, *hint*.”

“Tough shit.” See, that ‘poor me’ crap annoyed him enough that he didn’t care – too much – about the dirt as he sat down. “You’re stuck with me now.” His right shoulder brushed against Eren’s as he settled on the roof. Hmm, it wasn’t a bad view of the dome from here, maybe he’d have to come up more often, with a blanket or something. “Now why did you ditch your darling sister and best friend?”

Letting out a strangled noise that sounded half snarl, half laugh, Eren ran his fingers through his hair, which only served to make it more tousled. Really, did the brat ever learn the concept of ‘brushing’? “I believe that Mikasa is more than adequate at looking after herself and Armin. I’m sure they’re just fine.” His high-pitched voice caught a bit when he spoke his sister’s name.

Levi rested his elbows on his bent knees. “Okay, I’m going out on a limb here, but something’s going on between you and Mikasa, right? She sure as hell wasn’t happy when that Ymir bitch brought up Mosca.” He’d tackle one topic at a time.

Running his hands through his hair again, Eren brought his palms back to his face and pressed them against his eyes, as if trying to block out the sight of something. When he dropped his hands to his lap, he turned to face Levi, his unusual eyes were shadowed internally, the golden color somehow dulled from its usual brightness. “My turn for a question – where are you from?”

Surprised both by how… how *old* Eren appeared just then and by the question, Levi couldn’t speak for a moment. “Why does it matter,” he asked once he could.

“Because it pertains to what I’m about to say.” The left corner of Eren’s mouth twitched up into a sardonic smile. “Come on, you know so much about me, and all I know about you is you like to swear, you hate to be dirty, you seem to like tea and you can fight. Well, and you’re a bit of an asshole. Now, give me something concrete about your past.”

Asshole, eh? Levi snorted in amusement and reached over to flick his fingers at the brat’s forehead – the fact that Eren didn’t move meant that the brat allowed him the reprimand. “You’re no prize yourself, you know.”

“See, asshole.” A pout formed on Eren’s face as he rubbed his forehead. “Now spill.”

Wondering why he hadn’t just stayed in the conference room and watched Erwin smack some shit out of Ymir and Mikasa, Levi sighed while he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m from Tartarus,” he admitted with a slight hint of hesitation.

For some reason, the brat didn’t look too surprised. “I thought it might be there, that or Mosca,” Eren said after a minute. “You have this… air about you.”

Uncertain about if he’d just been insulted, Levi reached for a handful of the brat’s shirt and yanked him closer. “You care to explain that?” He’d left Tartarus behind a long time ago, had worked hard to better himself. No one knew where he was from unless they’d been in the Corps back then.

Eren grasped the hand wrapped in his shirt and smiled, the expression a touch sad. “You remind me a lot of Mikasa and myself, and even Ymir. There’s something about being raised in an environment where you have to struggle so much for everything.” His hand went slack and he pulled away as much as Levi’s grip would allow. “When you do whatever you can just to survive. It’s the hard edges and all, a certain look in the eyes. That and you can fight dirty as hell.”

What the kid said made sense; Levi had stolen and worse back in Tartarus to support himself and Isabel and Farlan. He was beginning to understand some of the things that Eren and Mikasa had done to survive over the years.

“So you’re saying I’m a bit like you?” He relaxed his hold on Eren’s shirt.

“I’m saying that you probably understand us better than anyone else here.” Eren let out a slow breath and leaned back on his elbows when his shirt was freed. “Captain Hange knows in theory that life was hard after the solar flares and the Malforms started attacking, but she doesn’t know what it’s like to not be able to trust anyone, to know that everyone who looks at you sees you as something they can use in one way or another – that or you’re utterly disposable. I think it was that… as much as the changes to our nature which kept us away from humans for the longest time.”

Levi could only imagine how difficult it must have been, living in a time when everyone sought to use each other and looking the way Eren did. However…. “What does this have to do with what’s going on downstairs?”

Eren’s fingers tugged at his hair in a nervous gesture, his gaze cast out over the courtyard. “It’s all about survival. You have to fight, to be willing to anything, to live. We’re used to that.” His eyes drifted shut for a few seconds. “Well, for the most part. Mikasa handles the fighting part easier, she’s good at it. Something happened in the past, when we were little… she doesn’t like it when I use sex to solve our problems.”

Ah, back to the Mosca topic, when Mikasa had been set off. “You do that often?” Not that Levi was curious or anything.

“It’s not a habit or a preferred method of solution, but it’s not like we’re able to carry around lots of credit.” Eren scoffed as he picked at the roofing surface. “Sometimes it’s been the only way we could deal with certain people.” There was a frown on his face when he looked back at Levi. “You telling me you or your friends never slept with anyone for a nice meal or a safe place to sleep? That those people down there don’t trade sex for a fun night out?”  


That prompted a short, bitter laugh out of Levi. “I’m sure they don’t think of it that way, but yeah, it’s all about a system of exchange.” He thought about it a bit more. “So you’re saying it all comes down to sex and violence in the end.” Yeah, he doubted anyone else would be following this conversation.

His rough summation earned him a bittersweet smile from the brat. “Yes, in a way. Some of the few constants we’ve had in our very long lives.” Eren pulled his knees to his chest and hugged them close, his chest resting on top of them. “Not that it makes accepting them any easier. If I go back down there now and talk to Mikasa, she’s just going to say stuff about how I ‘shouldn’t have done it’ and ‘how bad it is that I had to do it’, that she couldn’t find out another way. She’s just looking out for me, and it’s hard to get angry when I know she’s upset and trying to keep me safe.”  
  
“So you do the mature thing of running away.” Levi reached over to tousle the brat’s hair. “How old are you again?”

“Oh fuck off.” Eren shoved Levi’s hand aside and scowled, his gaze focused out over the courtyard. “Those new IDs would have cost me three hundred thousand credits. Instead, I just let some old bastard go at it for twenty minutes, on top of a blow job.”

“Three hundred – dammit, I’m in the wrong business.” Levi’s hands clenched into fists when he thought about some perverted-ass Minister skimming more money and benefits from an already lucrative position. “Oi, brat, want to overthrow a government or two?”

Eren glanced at him over his arm and smirked. “One thing at a time, okay? You help me find out what Grisha stashed away and then I’ll help you take down the domes.”

“Deal.” Three hundred thousand credits for three new IDs – it sure as hell had gone up since Farlan had looked into – damnit, Levi cut off the thought before he became maudlin. “Not like it’ll do us much good, as we’d still have to deal with the fact that the world is mostly shit outside of them for a good part of the year.” Since he was looking at Eren at the time, he noticed when the brat ducked his face into his arms as if to hide it. “All right, I’m thinking you’ve got something to say, and this isn’t the place for me to kick it out of you like back in the alley since you’ll end up falling onto the ground. Erwin’s in a bad enough mood already.”

Making a whining noise that was almost adorable, Eren shook his head several times then mumbled something. “Try saying it so I can understand it.” Levi reached over to grab a handful of mussed brown hair and yanked until he could see the brat’s face.

“Ow! Dammit, why do you have to be so sadistic!?” Eren glowered at him while batting aside his hand. “Are you not happy until you get in your quota of the day of smacking me around?”

“… pretty much. Now talk.”

“Arschloch,“ Eren hissed while fussing with his hair. After pouting for a few seconds, he huffed once and started the explanation. “So, the Freedom Corps spends the two months that the domes are open outside testing the open spaces to see how the world is recovering from the solar flares, finding new food sources and generally preparing for the time when mankind can leave the domes, no?”

Levi rolled his eyes at stuff that even an idiot knew. “Yeah, while doing our best to not be killed by Malforms.”

“Ever wonder who makes those machines you use for testing?” Eren gazed at him, face perfectly blank.

Feeling as if he was talking to an idiot, Levi began reciting the answer that had been drilled into him when he joined the Corps. “It’s a prestigious firm that dates back before the decline of civilization, one known for scientific discovery, a small yet renowned – why the fuck are you staring at me like that?”

“Because you’re not thinking about what you’re saying, *Captain*.” Eren leaned in close, his eyes glowing bright. “Say the first part again.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake – it’s a prestigious firm that dates back before the decline of civilization….” Levi realized that he was gazing into the luminous eyes of something, *someone*, who ‘dated back before the decline of civilization’. “Are you telling me that the shitty company is run by vampires?”

“Score a point for Captain Napoleon.” Eren sounded worn out as he once again rested his head on his knees. “The others have always had their hand in stuff – you need money if you’re going to survive for so long. Guess one of them had the sense to realize that solar radiation sensors would benefit them somehow, seeing how they’re restrained by sunlight. Now, do you think you can trust what that equipment tells you?”

Pushing up onto his knees, Levi grabbed the frustrating brat by his shoulders and shook him. “Are you telling me that there’s no need for us to be trapped in these fucking domes,” he shouted.

Eren flinched from the volume and shook his head. “No, it hasn’t gotten that good out there yet – I’d say you still need the domes at least two months out of the year. But it’s getting better. Armin thinks that in another generation, two at the most, maybe you can start leaving the domes entirely.” He bit his lips while he pushed back the hair falling into his eyes. “Maybe that’s why they’re attacking now, because they know their time is running out. If they want to claim the outside world, they need to do it soon.”

And to do that, they had to be able to withstand the sun. Levi thought about Ymir and her ‘need’ for Eren, for him to turn her girlfriend. If he did that, then there would be another ‘vampire’ who could go outside in the daylight. “Do you think that’s why Ymir is here?”

Eren shrugged, his narrow shoulders moving up and down beneath Levi’s fingers. “Do I think she realizes what’s going on with the others and what they want? I wouldn’t be surprised since she’s pretty smart and can figure things out. But I think it’s basically that she’s found someone she wants to be with and she doesn’t want them to die on her, so she thought she’d do her best to guilt-trip or harass me into turning them.”

It was funny – in the last couple of days, Levi had hauled this kid around, fought with him, sat on top of him, nearly been emasculated by him – generally been close to him enough to harass the hell out of him. Yet this was the first time he really noticed how warm Eren’s skin was, how heat seemed to radiate out of him. It was… comforting.

Dammit, *focus*. “So will you do it?”  
  
Eren tensed at the question, not moving for several seconds, and then his body slowly relaxed. He looked away from Levi, his eyes once more shaded. “I’m going to say ‘no’, because that’s what I’ve always said. I didn’t know what I was doing with Mikasa and I’m not sure I could do it deliberately.” His mouth moved as if he was going to say something else, yet no sound came out. After a few seconds, he sighed and closed his eyes.

Forcing his hands to let go of the brat, Levi resumed his position next to Eren, their shoulders and thighs touching. “So why don’t I believe you?”

That prompted a startled reaction from Eren, him whipping his head around with his eyes wide and bright once again. After staring at Levi for what felt to be at least a minute, he sighed again and shook his head, his chin-length hair flying about. “I don’t know… maybe because I look at Krista and wonder what it would be like, going through life without Mikasa. I’ve had a few people ask me to turn them, back when we let them know what we were, and it was easier to say ‘no’.” He picked at a strand of his hair and pulled it out straight, his eyes fixed on it as he twisted it about. “They were just afraid of death.”

Levi was startled to find himself laughing, truly laughing in reaction to the answer, his arms wrapped around his sides. When Eren gazed at him in surprise, he shook his head a few times until he could speak. “Who the fuck isn’t, kid.”

That earned him an amused snort in return. “So claims the man who routinely fights Malform with nothing but a bad attitude and two shiny blades.” Eren arched an eyebrow over one of those damn eyes of his and dared him to disagree.

Dammit, Levi hated it when the brat had a point. “And style, don’t leave out the fact that I have style,” he bitched while he kicked the bastard in the ankle.

“Okay, I’ll give you that.” Eren did that pouting thing while he rubbed at his scuffed boot. “It’s about degrees – yeah no one’s crazy about dying, but you and the others down there suck it up, risk your lives for others and face death head on, especially when you deal with those infected by Malform bites. The rest….” His lips pressed together in a frown.

Yeah, the others would stab you in the back if they thought it would save them a minute longer. Levi brushed a speck of dirt off of his right knee and tried to keep the frustration from boiling up into senseless rage just then, when there was little point to it. “So what about Krista? You think she’s one of us or one of them?”

“I guess I’ll find out soon enough, if Commander Smith let’s her stay. But if Ymir’s picked her, she’s probably the former since I can’t see Ymir choosing someone so weak.” Eren stared off into the distance for a moment. “Argh!” He yelled in frustration before falling back to lie on the roof. “There’s something to be said about wandering around the ruins of a civilization for a couple of centuries. Lack of hot water and plumbing aside, things were a hell of a lot simpler.”

Levi shuddered in horror at the thought of the lack of basic sanitation. “Keep your horror stories to yourself, you hear?” He sat there for a minute looking out over the base and the part of the dome before him and thought about how peaceful it was up here, at how so few people were outside. “Hey, I think it’s still dinner. You going to go down and find your sister?”

Eren made a non-committal noise before sitting back up, his shoulder brushing against Levi’s. “I’m not hungry, and I don’t feel like dealing with anyone just yet.” He once more bent his knees and rested his chin on them, his arms wrapped around his legs. “I think I’ll stay up here for a while.”

There was a ton of paperwork that Levi needed to review, and Erwin probably was waiting to talk to him about Ymir and what her arrival meant for the Corps while Levi needed to tell him about the whole outside thing, but Levi found himself unwilling to move. Perhaps it was that moments of peace like this were so rare, as was finding someone to talk to who understood him and his background. Whatever the reason, he figured he could always grab a snack later, deal with the documents while staying up with a pot of tea and just stay here a little longer.

“Yeah, well, just be sure not to ruin my view while you sit there with your little pity party.” Levi shifted about to settle a bit more comfortable. Yes, next time he was definitely bringing a blanket up here.

Eren snorted once and shook his head. “Oh yeah, *such* an asshole.”

“Don’t forget the captain part, ‘Rebel’.”

Eren growled beneath his breath. “Don’t you start that shit, too! I’m going to kill Ymir.”

Smirking, Levi propped an elbow up on his left knee and enjoyed how the lights began to dim out through the dome. If he let his mind wander enough, he could imagine he was staring out over a mountain range instead of walls and roofs, thoughts lost on a time when he wouldn’t be so constrained.

*******

Armin walked after Mikasa, worried about how quiet she had become – if you knew the signs to look out for, you could tell when she was withdrawing inward: the scarf was tugged a little too high, her shoulders hunched a little too forward, her head hung too low. He reached out to grab hold of her left hand and began to lead her through the crowded hallway of fellow Freedom Corps members headed toward the dining room. 

“Mikasa! Armin! Are you meeting Eren for dinner?” There was a big smile on Sasha’s face as she barely halted in time to avoid crashing into them. 

“Ah, we’re going to find him,” Armin told her, feeling how Mikasa’s hand tightened around his own at the mention of her brother. “We might be late for dinner.”  
  
Sasha’s expression turned crestfallen at the possibility of her missing out on her additional meals, then she rallied another smile. “Well, I’ll save you some seats just in case.” She gave them a friendly wave and was off and running, no doubt intent to reach her dinner as quickly as possible. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who loves food as much as that girl does,” Armin remarked while he shook his head. He glanced at Mikasa and found her still staring down at the floor, and a small sigh slipped free; she was really obsessing over Eren this time. “All right, let’s find someplace quiet.” 

Everyone else should be at dinner right now, so he figured it would be safe to go to their sleeping quarters. If anyone came upon them, Mikasa’s enhanced senses would give them some warning, but the large, communal room should be abandoned right now. 

Armin had to admit that he had been a bit spoiled living with just Mikasa and Eren all these years, and his grandfather before that. He had a few memories of his parents – hazy, cherished ones – and had always been a part of a small circle of attention. That circle might not have had a lot of possessions, either because of few resources or constant relocation, but he hadn’t felt a lack in his life. A lot of other people had larger families and were used to living in close quarters with little or no privacy due to the limited resources of the domes, so this whole ‘communal’ style of rooming wasn’t too big of a deal for them. It took some getting used to, the cavernous space with its rows of bunk beds, storage units and shared desks. 

Leading Mikasa over to the bunk bed that he shared with Eren, he set her down on the lower bed and then sat beside her. “All right, what’s going on?” Well, besides the obvious, which was that Ymir being here had caused several new problems for them. “Do you need me to track down Eren?” 

“No!” The denial came out strangled and low, as if Mikasa was in pain. She shook her head in a frantic enough manner that the scarf loosened around her face, and Armin swore that he saw a glimmer of tears in her dark eyes. 

“Mikasa…” He gave her a fierce hug, desperate to make her understand and to provide some comfort. “You know he’ll come back, don’t you? He always comes back. He just… he needs a little time to clear his head since I’m sure Ymir upset him with her request.” Armin couldn’t believe that the woman had stood there and asked such a thing – especially someone who claimed to know Eren at all. 

Mikasa hugged him back, her arms almost painfully tight around his upper body. “I know. I know.” She pressed her face into the crook of his neck. “I know he does, it’s just… sometimes I feel like I’m chasing after the sun with him. He’s… he’s so bright, so bright and warm, always there, and I *need* him so much. It’s as if I’m in the dark running after him and he’s just out of reach….” She made a sniffling sound as if she was trying to hold back tears, and Armin smoothed his hand over her hair. “This is one of those times when it seems like he’s too far away. I just want to keep him safe but there’s so much in the way.” 

Including Eren himself, Armin suspected. He loved his friend, he truly did, and owed him so much, but sometimes Eren’s biggest enemy was himself. As it was, Armin felt a bit guilty for suspecting what Eren had gone off to do back in Mosca and not saying anything to Mikasa then – if he had, it would have spared the shock of Ymir being the one to bring it to her attention. “Are you upset over what… what Ymir said about Mosca,” he dared to ask. 

“I’m pissed about *everything* that bitch said.” Mikasa pulled back so quickly that Armin’s arms were yanked apart as she sat further away on the bed, her eyes flashing gold and her mouth set in a grim line. “But yeah, he goes too far, he *always* goes too far. I wish he’d just stop to *think* for once about what would happen if one of those assholes try to hurt him, or decides to keep him, or… or….” 

“But Eren wouldn’t be Eren if he didn’t go off in a mad rush to do something to help us out,” Armin pointed out. “And if things didn’t somehow work out.” 

Mikasa’s expression softened, her eyes returned to normal while she gathered the ends of the scarf in her hands as if cradling something infinitely precious. “Yes, you’re right. I just hate this feeling that I can’t help him out as much as I’d like. I can’t do anything to keep Ymir away from him since Commander Smith has accepted her, and I can’t protect him from the others.” She glanced around the room. “We’ve had to accept help from strangers – rude, abusive, intrusive strangers – to help us fight our own battles. What kind of sister am I?” She sounded ready to cry again. 

He reached out to give her shoulder a shake. “Hey, you’re the best sister I’ve ever seen! And they’re not all bad, these people.” He wasn’t surprised that she felt so negative toward the Freedom Corps, considering that she was so used to it being just the three of them. “Captain Ackerman can be a bit harsh at times, but he really seems to care about protecting everybody. And Captain Hange is really smart! I’m learning a lot from her.” Judging from the indifferent look he was being given, Armin decided that Mikasa really didn’t care to hear about the Freedom Corps’ better qualities. “You’re not a failure, Mikasa. Eren didn’t decide to join the Freedom Corps because you let him down, he did it because not even the two of you can defeat everyone.” He gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “Sometimes even the best of warriors need allies. I believe Eren would rather accept help than risk losing you.” 

She bowed her head and seemed to consider what he said, then slowly nodded after a minute. “I understand. I’ll work harder, will make sure he has all the support he needs. And if Ymir thinks she can force him to do something he doesn’t want, then she’s mistaken.” She flashed a hint of fangs as she raised her chin. 

There were times when Armin wondered what exactly it was that had bonded Mikasa to Eren’s side so strongly – he knew that the bond had been there before the siblings had lost their parents, before the world had changed so drastically and they had turned into human/Malform hybrids. He’d heard hints over the years, something to do with the death of Mikasa’s birth parents and why she was so against Eren using himself as barter, yet never a full explanation. Whatever it had been, all he was certain of was that Mikasa seemed unable to live without Eren, that Eren considered Mikasa as family yet sometimes failed to grasp just how vital he was to her, and that the scarf that Mikasa wore was a symbol of the tie between them. 

“Well, I’m putting my money on you.” He smiled at his half-joke and was pleased to see her respond in kind, an eyebrow arched as if to say who else would he expect to win? He had just begun to elaborate on all the ways she could put Ymir and Captain Ackerman in their places when Mikasa sat up straight and held up her hand in a signal to be quiet. 

In a few seconds he could hear the sounds of footsteps approaching, which turned out to be Captain Hange leading Ymir and Krista, both of whom were now dressed in the Freedom Corps uniform and holding a large stack of clothes in their arms. “Hello!” Captain Hange waved upon spotting them, a very pleased grin upon her face; she reminded Armin of the illustration in that one ancient children’s book that Mikasa had shown him, about the girl who fell down a rabbit hole. “Guess who joined my squad?” 

Ymir had a distinctly sour look on her face. “Is she always this fucking hyper?” 

“Ymir!” Krista chided, a blush spreading across her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Captain.” 

“Oh, no worries, I’m used to it!” Captain Hange kept beaming in that demented way of hers while she motioned to the empty bunk bed two down from Armin’s. “You’ll be sleeping here, and yes, I’m usually this energetic.” 

Ymir gave Mikasa a wary glance as she made her way to the bunk bed, while Krista smiled and thanked the captain. “We should head to dinner while there’s still a bit of food left.” Captain Hange looked Ymir over as if examining a specimen. “Can you manage to eat some food?” 

“A few bites, enough to pass for human.” Ymir shrugged, her manner nonchalant, as she set her new belongings on the top bunk. “A lot of our kind complain about being picky eaters or stomach ailments to get by.” 

“Well, you’re going to make Sasha’s day.” Armin stood up and brushed at the wrinkles in his pants. “Whatever food you can’t eat, she’ll be ever so happy to take care of for you.” 

A sly grin spread across Ymir’s face. “Depends – what’s in it for me?” 

“Isn’t that always what counts for you?” There was a hint of malevolence to Mikasa’s quiet voice as she joined Armin. “Never do anything for the sake of just doing it?” 

Armin expected another fight to break out between the two women, yet an oddly tender look crossed Ymir’s face when she turned toward Krista, who was the only one who appeared angry at what Mikasa had just said. “No, not always.” Ymir reached out to gently touch Krista’s left cheek. 

The room fell quiet after that, with Mikasa and Armin glancing everywhere but at the couple and Captain Hange quickly jotting down notes. “All right,” the captain said after a minute. “A quick dinner and then I can show the two of you around.” She cocked her head to the side and once more seemed to examine Ymir. “You don’t need to go ‘out’ for a meal anytime soon, do you?” 

It took a moment for Ymir to figure out what the woman was asking. “Uhm, yeah, I’m good. Wasn’t sure how okay you guys would be with that so made sure to eat before we came.” 

“You do realize that you need to stick to Malforms from now on,” Mikasa hissed as she strode forward, acting as if even being in the vicinity of Ymir was too much for her. 

“I’ll have you know, Sunshine, I’ve been good for *years* now,” Ymir snapped back. “For crying out loud, no wonder Rebel acts the way he does, with a mother like you hovering around all the time.” 

Armin snatched at Mikasa’s hand and kept her moving forward, before another fight could begin. “Come on, we don’t have much time before they stop serving the food!”

“Is it a… well, your type of thing to call each other nicknames?” Captain Hange sounded more excited than curious, hunched over her notebook and avoiding walking into walls probably by memory alone. “Eren calls Mikasa ‘Miss Perfect’, you have your own names for Eren and Mikasa, and they call Levi ‘Captain Napoleon. Is it a trait? 

“Oh hell…” Armin muttered. 

“Captain Napoleon?” Ymir came to a stop in the middle of the hallway and stared at Captain Hange in astonishment. “*Captain* *Napoleon*?” She turned to look at a blatantly nonchalant Mikasa before she burst out into laughter. “Shorty? Captain Napoleon? Oh, too good!” She bent over and began to slap at the wall. “It’s perfect! I can’t wait to see the short bastard again!” 

Her brows drawn forward in confusion, Captain Hange glanced back and forth between the hysterical Ymir and the silent Mikasa. “Oh-kay, am I missing something here?” 

“Nothing, Captain. You’ll soon come to discover that Ymir can be extremely unstable. Think nothing of it.” Mikasa tossed back an end of her scarf over her shoulder and resumed walking toward the dining room as if Ymir’s reaction was perfectly normal. 

“Oh! Why do you have to be *such* a bitch!” Krista snapped at Mikasa and stalked forward, her hands balled into fists. “That was completely uncalled for!” 

Ymir snickered and pulled her girlfriend back to her side while she wiped at the tears from the excessive laughter that streaked her face. “Relax, she can’t help herself. She’s going to be like that until widdle Eren comes back to be fussed over.” 

Armin pressed his palms against Mikasa’s back to keep her from turning around. “You know, I’m beginning to see why they never properly introduced us, Ymir. It definitely was much more peaceful before you showed up – and this is *with* the Malform attack the other day.”  

“Not bad, kid. I understand now why they’ve kept you around so long.” There was a grudging note of respect in Ymir’s voice. 

“Your kind’s relationships are so fascinating!” Captain Hange sounded giddy with excitement – Armin wasn’t looking forward to spending the day with her tomorrow and what would be an endless barrage of tests and questions. “The hostility, the bickering and insults… Levi would be a natural if he was turned!” 

Armin could feel Mikasa cringe at that comment, and he stumbled a bit himself when the mental image of Captain Ackerman with fangs and glowing golden eyes flashed through his mind. “Hasn’t humanity been through enough,” he whimpered. The man was bad enough as a *human*.

Captain Hange appeared to consider that for a moment before nodding. “You may have a point. He's rather vicious as is.” She made a few more notes then motioned for everyone to continue on their way.  
  
Ymir strolled forward, Krista at her side and their hands clasped together. “So, Blondie, is it me or did we just sign up with a bunch of self-sacrificing lunatics?” She didn’t bother to pitch her voice low enough so Captain Hange couldn’t hear her.

Armin felt his face heat up as he struggled not to look back at the captain, while Krista just sighed and bore an expression of long-suffering. “Uhm…”

“Yeah, I thought so.” Ymir squinted hard in Mikasa’s direction. “Trust Rebel and Sunshine to lead the way into the path most likely to involve mass chaos, high body count and the dissolution of at least four social conventions.”

Mikasa didn’t bother to look over as she responded, her voice possessing an icy coldness that made Armin wince to hear it. “I don’t remember inviting you to join in.”

“Don’t worry, I consider that among your better features.” Ymir smirked before looking straight ahead.

“Are you sure that snarkiness isn’t a trait of your kind?” Captain Hange called out as she followed along.

*******

Eren snuck in the dorm room, past all of the sleeping people. There was a slight stirring of hunger at the scent of them, not so much from the lack of feeding but from the opportunity of so much easy prey, which Eren pushed aside with ease. He continued down the aisles of bunk beds until he found the one he wanted and climbed up onto the top bunk.

Mikasa was lying down, so he stretched out beside her, on top of the blankets. “I’m sorry,” he murmured and draped his right arm over her waist.

She hugged his arm tighter to her body. “It’s all right,” she whispered back. “I’m sorry, too.”

He pressed his face against her back for a moment, content just to be near her, to breathe in her scent. Being up on the roof had helped clear his head, as had talking to Captain Ackerman, someone who wasn’t so caught up in his world; having an outside, unattached perspective was good at times, considering how insular his life had become. Now that he’d calmed down, he could better understand why his sister had been so upset earlier.

“I guess I should-“  
  
“Eren, don’t say anything.” Mikasa’s hand tightened around his arm. “Just – let’s just move on from it.”

He smiled and rested his chin on her shoulder. “Okay.” It wasn’t the best way to solve their problems, as he was certain the situation would come up in the future again, but he didn’t want to fight with the person he loved best in this world, didn’t want to see her upset and hurting over something he felt had been right at the time and wouldn’t stop doing if it meant keeping her and Armin safe. So yeah, he was fine with ‘moving on’. After living so long, they’d gotten good at doing just that. Well, mostly.

“You do know that I have every faith in you kicking Ymir’s ass if it comes down to it, right?” he whispered, feeling that it needed to be said. “No matter what Commander Smith wants.”

Mikasa made a pleased, humming sound. “Hmm, yes.” She snuggled back against him, body warm and relaxed, save for the arm that was pressed against his own.

From a few beds down there was a muffled ‘yeah, right’ which sounded like Ymir’s sleepy voice, but he chose to ignore the comment in favor of being next to his sister, of feeling safe and whole once again. They would need to sneak away before daybreak and talk about why they really thought Ymir was here, besides wanting Krista turned, but it could wait a few more hours. Right now, Eren didn’t want to think about the possibility of the people he once thought of as friends tracking him down to use him, of getting so close that they drove another ‘friend’ to the desperate act of trusting humans in order to find safety, he just wanted to lie next to his sister, breathe in her scent and feel secure enough to sleep for an hour or two.

“Get some rest, I’ll watch over you,” Mikasa whispered, seeming to read his thoughts as always.

“Thanks, Mikasa.” He hugged her close as his eyes drifted shut and sleep washed over him.

******* 


	10. Young Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, longest chapter yet... Next one will be where the rating jumps up to explicit, but it's also a flashback, so sorry, nothing too drastic by way of changes on the current relationship fronts.
> 
> If you haven't noticed, the title of the fic and chapters are taken from songs - I figured at the end I'd post the entire 'soundtrack', unless anyone's curious beforehand (that and this fic is getting rather long). My music tastes bounce all over, and some songs are picked for certain lyrics but I do try for an overall theme.
> 
> Once again, thanks for the comments and kudos! They are greatly appreciated.

*******

Levi rubbed at his eyes, feeling as if they were full of sand; he’d spent a good bit of the night reading over the numerous reports that Erwin had sent him, double-checking duty rosters, giving input on supplies and the latest political maneuvering of Trost’s Chairman and Ministers and those of the neighboring domes as well, reviewing the communications from various Corps…. It was a good thing he got by on just a few hours of sleep, because he certainly hadn’t been doing much of it last night. 

He didn’t bother to announce himself before entering Erwin’s office, he just opened the door and stalked inside, certain that he’d find the overachieving bastard hard at work behind his desk and had yet to be disappointed. Erwin didn’t even look up from the datapad he was busy reading, he merely waved Levi toward the nearest torture device masquerading as a chair by way of greeting. 

Neither of them said anything while Erwin finished reviewing whatever the document was and Levi resigned to pouring himself a cup of coffee in order to ingest some much needed caffeine. After a couple of minutes, Erwin signed off on it and set the device aside. “So, I assume that you had a very good reason for spending the evening with Eren Jaeger when there were important matters that needed attention?” He had a perfectly civil smile on his face as he asked the question, but there was a hint of coldness to his blue eyes which revealed what he thought about Levi ‘slacking’ in his duties. 

Well, someone sure was grouchy this morning. Levi slurped his coffee just to be annoying, drawing out the process until he saw a faint twitch below Erwin’s left eye.  “You telling me that you didn’t have the situation under control?” 

“Of course I did.” Erwin frowned, the expression slight but there if you knew what to look for, and pressed the tips of his fingers against the top of his desk. “I’ve assigned the two women to Hange, since it’ll give her a chance to examine Ymir’s species and observe their relationship. I want to know for certain that she’s not coercing or taking advantage of Krista in any manner. I made it clear to both that they will follow the rules of the Corps at all times while they are members, and they’ve sworn to obey. What I wanted from you was your opinion on their sudden appearance.” 

“Which is why I’m here now.” Levi paused for another sip of coffee, mentally grimacing at the strong, bitter taste. “I don’t think it’s good that they’re showing up now, considering the situation here and to a lesser extent in Bern and Maria – every indication I’m getting from Eren is that Ymir is out for herself, first and foremost. If she was willing to risk her neck by revealing herself, then that means she must want something very important.” 

Erwin nodded along, showing that he believed much the same. “Yes, and what do you feel are her goals?” 

Levi hated it when his friend played this ‘what do you think’ game instead of just coming out with what he knew. “I ‘feel’ it’s two-fold.” He groaned in exhaustion as he set the empty mug aside. “Shit, it’s too early for this crap. She obviously cares about her girlfriend, and she’s serious about Eren turning her. That plays into the second thing – she wants both of them to be safe. So we have two people who feel that something bad is coming their way and want to ensure that they’re going to survive it at any cost.”

“Even if it means going into the headquarters of the people of might kill them, because those people should act as interference to the creatures who are hunting them down.” Erwin tapped his fingers against the desk, hard. “Or they’re hoping to use us as a shield.” The way his eyes flashed in anger at the mention of the idea, Levi didn’t think that Erwin would allow it to happen so easily. 

“Yeah, that’s my thoughts exactly.” Settling in the chair with his right leg crossed over his left thigh, Levi smoothed his fingers over the thick leather of his boot. “It looks as if we’re of similar minds, so you didn’t need me last night. Explain to me what crawled up your ass this morning.” 

A small, amused smile tugged at the corners of Erwin’s mouth while he poured himself some more coffee from the carafe on his desk. “Eloquent as always. Did you enjoy your chat with Eren? I thought you found him rather annoying, considering the effort you go through to put him and his sister in their places.” 

Huh, someone was keeping track of him, weren’t they? Levi clicked his tongue a few times and glared at the smug bastard from beneath his bangs. “I’m just making sure they know their spots in the pecking order – they’re used to doing whatever their want for a very long time.” When Erwin’s smile took on a condescending nature, his eyes narrowed even more. “If you’re going to be like this, I won’t bother to tell you what I learned from the brat last night and go do something of value, such as brief my squad.” 

Erwin spread out his arms and shook his head. “I’m sorry, did I give you the impression that I’m not taking you seriously?” 

“You exist, of course you do,” Levi snapped. He continued to glare until Erwin managed a mostly contrite look. “It was an interesting discussion,” he continued, a bite to his words to let his friend know that he was still on to him. “It had to do with our assumptions about the outside world and how long until it’s habitable.” 

“Assumptions?” Erwin’s thick brows became furrowed as he questioned Levi’s wording. “What assumptions? That it’ll be even longer than projected before humanity is able to leave behind the domes?” When Levi continued to stare evenly back at him and remain quiet, his face reddened and he stood to his feet in a rush. “Are you saying it’s the opposite? How is that possible?” 

Levi flicked away a piece of lint before he answered, thinking back to Eren’s almost pitying look last night. “Because we’re naïve, blind fools, apparently.” He huffed and jerked his gloved fingers through his hair. “We put our absolute faith in machines provided by others and never stop to think for ourselves or use our own senses.”  
  
Erwin continued to stare at him for several seconds, until the realization sank in; Levi could see the fury build in his friend. “Are you telling me that our readings, the ones we’ve risked our lives for all these years, the ones that humanity depends upon, have been wrong?” Erwin’s voice had dropped to a quiet level that never was good for someone.

What, like this was his fault? Levi shrugged and let his hand fall back into his lap. “Eren said that those fucking ‘others’ have had a hand in certain industries since before things went all to shit. One they made certain to retain after the shit hit the fan dealt with solar radiation sensors.”

 There was a sudden, loud sound as Erwin punched his desk, causing datapads to bounce and skitter about. He swore under his breath, the sound a furious hiss, before he seemed to regain control over himself. “Do you know what this means?”  
  
“Yeah, that Hange’s going to be impossible to live with once she finds out.” That lunatic had been begging to be left outside the domes for years, claiming that her research indicated that the solar flare cycles were lessening in impact despite the ‘official’ readings. 

Erwin looked at Levi as if he’d gone mad for several seconds before laughing, the expression a touch hysterical, and falling back into his chair. “Well, yes, there’s that,” he admitted, a slight hiccup to his voice before his demeanor turned serious. “How could they have gotten away with it for so long? And why?” 

Now they were getting somewhere. “To answer your second question first, they’re doing it because it keeps their food source trapped in neat little containers for them to hunt in, where they don’t have to worry about bothersome things like sunlight.” Levi pushed up the sleeve of his left arm. “And the first part? Hmm, who do we also know who has just the slightest of reasons to want to keep people restrained inside the domes?” His left hand flexed into a fist, prepping a rappelling dart. “I’m drawing a blank.” Erwin raised an eyebrow at the last remark, probably because of the amount of sarcasm in his voice. 

“Yes, who do we know indeed.” Erwin began to restore order to his desk in a manner that was a little too restrained. “Did Eren say he has proof of the true vampires working with Chairmen or their Ministers?” 

“No, but when I brought it up while we were returning to our rooms for the night, he was quick to change the subject. I’m learning that’s his rather unsubtle way of indicating that I’m right but he doesn’t want to deal with the mess of admitting I’m right.”

Erwin’s left brow arched and a pleased smirk curved his lips. “Hmm, you seem to know an awful lot about the ‘brat’ now. Just what all did you do yesterday while all alone?” Both thick brows rose up and down a few times in a suggestive manner.

“Oh fuck you.” Levi gave his friend the finger. “We just talked.”

“Levi, for you to ‘just talk’ to a person is a miracle in and of itself.” Erwin stared at him in astonishment. “Your concept of a relationship with a fellow human being is to smack them once and then ignore them from that point onward.”

“Bullshit. I don’t-“  
  
“To hell you don’t. You’re the most repressed bastard I’ve ever meet.” Erwin leaned forward to glare at him over the desk. “The only reason Hange is still your friend is that she has a very high tolerance for pain and is just as fucked up as you in her own way. Your squad adores you, but none of them are really close to you. They consider being able to follow your orders and not piss you off on a daily basis to be such an amazing feat that they gather together to drink on a weekly basis to celebrate the fact. What I’m trying to say is, you’re an asshole, Levi.” Erwin’s expression softened to some sort of pity. “I understand that you lost- that it’s difficult, what we do. If you can connect with Eren Jaeger in some sort of manner… all I can say is, good for you.”

Levi glared at Erwin, for a moment hatred bubbling up in his chest hot and potent. This was the bastard who had pulled him out of Tartarus, him and Isabel and Farlan. There was no guarantee that they’d have been fine if they’d been left there in that dome – hell, they’d probably be all dead for years now, but…. He shook his head. Erwin had done what he’d felt was needed, for both humanity, the Corps and, oddly enough, Levi, Isabel and Farlan. It was just a sign of the fucked up world they lived in that joining the Freedom Corps meant that you usually had only a few good years in you – if even that long.

“He’s just a fucking brat who has the answers we’re looking for,” he snapped, refusing to think about certain things this early in the day. “Talking to him gets us those answers easier than me kicking his ass.”

“But you usually enjoy kicking people’s asses.” Erwin pointed out.

Levi narrowed his eyes. “Am I conversing with you or just blabbering nonsense?”

Erwin smiled, the expression bland while the sparks in his eyes were sharp. “No, it’s true – you do seem to derive a sort of pleasure in beating people up. So why don’t you continue to beat the answers out of him?”

Pushing himself up onto his feet, Levi gave Erwin another rude gesture as he turned to leave. “Look into what those fucking vampires have been doing to mess with the results of our tests. I’ll be taking the brat out for my patrol today to see if we can track down any Malforms, since something has Ymir so upset,” he snapped, fed up with the conversation and needing to get away from the base for the day.

“Have fun,” Erwin called out to him. “Try not to cause too much mayhem.”

“Whatever.” Levi had had enough already, and it wasn’t even past breakfast. No wonder he was always in the mood to ‘beat people up’. He left the office to go seek out his squad.

*******

Eren stared at the food on the tray before him and wondered when human food had become so unappealing – he couldn’t imagine taking a bite out of the bland scrambled eggs, greyish slab of meat and white lump of grits. He thought of the frittatas or omelets his mother used to make for him and Mikasa, or the plates of cheese, sausage, boiled eggs, smoked fish, bread, jam and fruit for his father. Back when he was young - back when food was more or less bountiful – he had enjoyed eating, but even after humanity had found a way to manage their limited resources, they never regained the diversity before the collapse.

“Is something the matter?” Sasha asked. “You don’t look too hungry this morning.” There was a hopeful note to her voice.  
  
“Sasha! Don’t tell me you’re trying to get the poor boy’s food again!” Daz chided. “I don’t see how he has the strength to get through training with the way you hijack his meals all the time.”  
  
“I don’t-“

“It’s all right,” Eren interrupted. “I was up late last night so I grabbed a bite to eat before going to bed. I guess I’m still full.” He pushed his tray aside, other than the cup of coffee. “She can have it.”

Mikasa ate a few bites of her eggs then pushed her tray aside as well. “I’m full as well. I never do have much of an appetite in the morning.”

“I know what you mean. It’s that damn gluten intolerance.” Ymir grinned as almost everyone at the table stared at her in confusion, except for Sasha who looked as if this was one of the happiest days in her life as she gathered the trays closer.

“So, what’s the agenda for the day, Rebel,” Ymir asked while she sipped her coffee, her elbows on the table. Beside her, Krista picked at her breakfast as if afraid it would turn on her somehow.

Eren glowered at the use of the hated nickname, but before he could say anything, Sasha paused in shoveling eggs in her mouth and blinked. “Uhm, why do you call him that? Him ‘Rebel’ and… and Mikasa ‘Sunshine’?”

Ymir blinked in apparent surprise at the question and took a moment to pick up her coffee, while Eren moaned internally at the question and Armin chuckled beside him. Then she grinned and leaned her elbows on the table, the cup of coffee held up near her chin. “Well, Eren’s pretty easy. After all, he’s always charging off half-cocked into some sort of trouble, so I dubbed him ‘Rebel without a Cause’. Though it’s more like ‘Rebel without a Clue’ since he never thinks before he goes crashing into things, but still, very James Dean.” When Sasha, Krista, Armin and several of the others just stared blankly at Ymir, she sighed and shook her head. “Kids these days, no appreciation of the classics.”

“What do you expect,” Eren grumbled as he eyed his own coffee with some trepidation, swearing that it smelled worse than the day before.

“Oh hush, or I’ll change your name to ‘Grumpy’.” Ymir sipped her coffee then winced, leaving Eren to suspect that yeah, the coffee was particularly bad today. What he wouldn’t give for a Starbucks…. “As for Mikasa, she got stuck with ‘Sunshine’ because that’s what she is, a fucking ray of sunshine all of the time.” Sarcasm practically dripped from her voice just then.

Mikasa didn’t bother to look her way, she just gave Ymir the finger while managing to drink her coffee without any obvious sign of distress.

“You guys are weird,” Daz muttered, a blush spreading across his face when he noticed Krista glaring at him for the insult. “I’m… I mean, I’m sorry!”

Ymir smirked as she watched the poor kid grovel in the face of her girlfriend’s ire. Eren glanced at the blonde ‘girl’ over the rim of his mug, trying to place what he knew about the Reiss heir and the young woman in front of him. There was an obvious core of steel in ‘Krista’, one that she didn’t show too often, but it made sense if she was with Ymir.

He had just forced himself to swallow another sip of coffee when Armin nudged him in the ribs. “Uhm, I think someone wants your attention.” He looked up to find Gunther from Captain Ackerman’s squad motioning to him, a heavy scowl on the man’s face.

“Ah, looks like I have to go,” Eren explained as he stood up from the table.

“Should I come along?” Mikasa pushed against the table-top as if to stand as well.

“Captain Ackerman said something last night about me following him today.” Eren gave his sister a reassuring smile. “You’re probably assigned to Petra and Olou.” He thought he caught a glimpse of the auburn-haired woman making her way to the table and was about to call out to her, when Gunther waved again. “Bye!” Shit, the man looked *pissed*.

Weaving his way through the crowd, Eren offered the taller man a shaky smile in greeting once he was close. “Ah, good morning.”

Gunther grunted instead of answering and turned around, his right hand motioning for Eren to follow. Great, looked as if someone still hadn’t warmed up to him. Nothing else was said until they were outside, where Captain Ackerman was waiting for them.

“We’re heading out now, so keep your mouth shut and don’t do anything stupid for once,” the captain ordered before striding off at a brisk pace.

So much for getting any answers or explanations. Eren ground his teeth together and decided to just obey, tagging along behind the two assholes. No one said anything for several blocks, which was fine by him because he was sure he’d just snap back and start a fight. To think that he thought that they were finally starting to get along. Why did the sudden return to ‘normal’ in their relationship bother him?

“Get up here, you’re making me nervous, trailing along back there.” 

Eren did his best not to flinch when Captain Ackerman snatched at his left arm and hauled him up to walk beside the shorter man, especially when Gunther eyed him with suspicion and stepped aside to put more space between then. While he was grateful to spend the day outside of the Freedom Corps’ headquarters and on patrol, something seemed to be bothering the captain today; last night they had parted on relatively good terms and with some sort of understanding. Eren wasn’t sure what had pissed the man off today, but he was tired of being glared at as if it was his fault. Gunther eyeing him as if he was two seconds away from draining the man dry of all his blood wasn’t helping, either…. 

“Sector 43E clear,” Captain Ackerman reported into his comm, his expression bored even as his grey eyes roved the streets around them. He paused to wait for an answer from whomever was on the other end before responding. “Get up there and check, you stupid fuck. Why do you think you have that shiny shit on your left arm?” He swore under his breath. “I swear, you brats are getting stupider by the hour.” He glanced at Eren while he said that. At least it sounded as if he was pissed at the world in general and not just Eren.

“Problem, Captain?” Gunther asked, his right hand on the hilt of his sword while he kept in step with Levi’s hurried pace. 

“Linke-Jackson thinks they found the remains of a Malform kill in sector 38A.” Levi continued to gaze at Eren. “There’s a blood trail leading up the side of a building.” 

“It’s more comforting to eat higher up,” Eren explained. “Less likelihood of being interrupted.” He met Levi’s intent gaze and smiled, the emotion behind it deliberately taunting. “You never know who’s going to be rude enough to come along and disturb you.” 

“Cheeky brat.” For the first time that morning, a hint of a smile cracked Captain Ackerman’s frosty demeanor, along with the slightest bit of amusement in his voice. “So what’s your take on this situation, *Rebel*.” 

And then the asshole had to go and do something like that. Eren really wanted to punch Ymir right about now, he thought to himself as he jerked his fingers through his hair, forgetting for a moment about the grey gloves. Deep breathes, he told himself. The way the captain’s smile strengthened in light of his annoyance didn’t help matters any. “It’s usually the older, more mature Malform who have the… ‘smarts’ to feed higher up. The younger ones will feast wherever they’re lucky enough to latch on to a person, which is normally on the ground.” A young married couple who were walking down the street near them caught part of the conversation, their faces turning pale as they hurried away. Eren grinned in with a bit of sick humour at their departing backs for a moment before turning toward Captain Ackerman. “I’d say you have at least one older Malform on your hands.” 

It didn’t need to be said that the older the Malform, the more difficult it would be to track it down and kill it. Captain Ackerman’s amusement seemed to fade as he rubbed at his eyes, the dark circles beneath them more pronounced than usual. “Aren’t you a fucking ray of sunshine?” 

“No, that’s Mikasa,” Eren couldn’t resist saying. The startled snort of laughter it wrung out of the asshole was worth it. 

“Yeah, I think that all of the time.” It appeared as if the captain was about to say something else, but stopped to listen to something over his comm. “Let Captain Hange and Commander Smith know about it. Keep your eyes open – we think it’s at least one mature Malform loose.” Captain Ackerman closed his eyes for a moment before looking at both Eren and Gunther. “They confirmed it – remains of what looks to be two separate feedings. Just an arm and a hand but they don’t match.” 

Gunther grunted while he clutched at his hilt. “Then the victims might have turned.” 

Eren couldn’t help it, he rubbed at his right arm as memories of the day when he was turned came flooding back. He was lost in the sensation of pain and confusion until he realized that someone was calling out to him. 

“Oi! Brat! What’s going on in that thick head of yours?” Captain Ackerman had a hold on his arm again and gave it a shake. “You picking up something?” 

“No.” Eren forced himself to smile, to push aside the memories. “Ah, just wondering when you’ll let me have a comm of my own.”  
  
Judging from the suspicious look he was receiving, the captain wasn’t buying his weak excuse but for some reason decided to let it go this time. “Right, you’ll get one when I’m certain you won’t spend the entire time checking in with Mikasa over stupid shit.” He yanked Eren along, his hand wrapped tight around Eren’s wrist as if he doubted in Eren’s ability to follow without getting into trouble. Eren would’ve objected, but… yeah, he’d be quiet for the moment. 

They made it about a block or two before Captain Ackerman decided that Eren had behaved himself enough to walk unassisted, busy the entire time barking out orders over the comm to his squad about checking this sector and that. Eren caught an odd look sent their way from various people on the street as well as Gunther.  He rubbed his left wrist once it was released, impressed despite himself at the amount of strength that the asshole possessed – too bad it was often directed his way. 

“So, *are* you picking up anything,” Captain Ackerman asked once he was done communicating over the comm. 

“Not really. There’s a lot of people here, but they’re moving too much and it’s so bright.” Eren paused for a moment to consider the street before him, to ‘see’ it in terms of hunting and prey. “Once they start panicking, they can escape so easily into the buildings.” Painful memories rushed to the fore. “Unless the Malform go inside to hunt.” 

Gunther swore, something about ‘undead bastard’ and took a step toward Eren, his right blade rising from its sheath. Captain Ackerman threw out his right hand to stop the man, a cold look in his hooded eyes. “Stand down,” he ordered before resuming his study of Eren. “So where would *you* hunt?” 

A sick feeling rose up in Eren’s stomach as he met the captain’s cold, assessing stare. “I’m… not… not Malform but-“ 

“Yes.” There was no sign of pity or compassion in those steely grey eyes. “I need you to think like one of them right now.”  
  
“But I’m *not* one of them, dammit!” 

“I know, but you’re the closest thing we have.” Captain Ackerman stepped forward with his right hand raised to Eren’s face; Eren refused to flinch, to back down, and let out a low whine when the man tucked back a lock of hair that had fallen into his eyes with a surprising gentleness. “Do it before there’s another massacre,” the captain ordered, his voice as harsh as the touch had been kind. “I don’t like the fact that it’s been so quiet again yet your ‘friends’ still came looking for shelter, and now another death.”

Eren whined again as he closed his eyes, thoughts focused on the surrounding area of the dome. He hunted *Malform* and he preferred the dark alleys where the monsters hid at night when on solitary hunts or nesting. Humans weren’t prey; they were confusing, amusing, heartbreaking creatures who were so fragile and cruel, who were mostly to be avoided. Yet there had been a time…. He whined again as he buried that memory, unwilling to think about it now. No, he just needed to think like a Malform, to try and figure out where they would go if pushed to hunt. 

Another memory flashed through his mind – running through the grass, desperate to reach shelter, some sort of protection, of how fast a Malform could move, how easy it was for them to run their prey to the ground…. 

Bile rose to his mouth as he opened his eyes. “I have an idea.” The words came out garbled since he struggled not to throw up the bitter coffee from breakfast, hampered by the fact that his fangs had surfaced as well. He didn’t wait for Captain Ackerman or Gunther, he merely headed in the direction that best fit his memory. 

Along the way he heard someone call out Captain Ackerman’s name, which caused the captain to curse about ‘baby shitstains’. Eren ignored the incident since he focused entirely on his destination, on picking up any trace of Malform that he could sense; he didn’t take to the air just yet, afraid of scaring away the creatures or revealing himself, so he kept his speed within human limitations as he ran through the streets, knocking into the occasional person. 

“What’s that moron’s problem?”  
  
“Go fuck off,” Captain Ackerman snapped. “We’re busy.” 

“Jean! We’re supposed to be delivering-“  
  
“Shut it, Connie! I want to know what these Wingers are up to!” 

Picking up the scent of grass, plastic and chemicals, Eren rounded the corner and came into what was considered a wide, open space for a dome, a rare park spread out before him. The grass was chemically treated and carefully trimmed, and the trees that lined its perimeter and scattered about with the plastic play equipment were rather anemic when compared to their majestic cousins which grew unhampered outside. For many of the adults and children who were taking advantage of the park, this was the closest that they would come to any ‘true’ greenery, as most wouldn’t leave the dome in their leaves – those that did only ventured outside in enclosed shuttles. Beneath the stink of chemicals, Eren thought he could smell… was that a trace of…. 

Captain Ackerman stomped over to Eren and snatched at him by the collar of his grey jacket. “Get this through that addled head of yours – no more running off like that, *understood*?” He was almost growling as he spoke, his eyes narrowed in anger and his compact body tense, as if ready to lash out at any second. He hauled Eren in close, so close their faces were almost touching. “And you wonder why I like beating you up so much.” 

About to say because the man was a sadistic asshole, Eren forced himself to swallow and think for once before he spoke. “Ah, well, we’re here?”

“Aw, isn’t this touching.” A somewhat familiar, annoying voice called out as the person approached. “You two look so cute.” 

Captain Ackerman’s eyes narrowed even more and his lips pressed into a thin line, almost disappearing from the force of his anger. He stepped back yet kept a hold on Eren’s jacket. “Is there a reason why you two shitty brats felt a need to tag along? Isn’t there some Minister you’re supposed to be babysitting? You flunk at ass-wiping or something?” 

Ah, it was Horse-face and Baldy, from the other night. Eren smirked when the two MPs flushed at the captain’s insult; Horse-face took what was probably meant to be a threatening step forward, but the sight of a glowering Gunther tilting his right blade forward as if to draw it put a halt to that real quick. 

“Jean, we’re already on double-duty, don’t make things worse,” the bald kid hissed out as he kept glancing back and forth between Gunther and the captain. “There’s people around!” 

Horse-face – Jean – spared the time to glare at his partner. “I know that!” He turned his attention back to Captain Ackerman. “I also know that it’s a bit odd, someone so high up in the Freedom Corps dragging along a new recruit. So what’s the deal? Is he some Minister’s son? What’s he doing with you Wingers, then?” 

The captain hissed in annoyance and waved aside the MP’s questions. “We don’t have time for this, some of us are actually doing work.” He turned to the side and looked at Eren. “Well, anything?” 

Eren continued to take deep, even breaths so he could ‘taste’ the air. “There’s a lot of people around, and these assholes aren’t helping.” He continued to search the small park, trying to spot any tell-tale signs of Malform. Were there any unusual shadows? Were the animals reacting abnormally? Was that a hint of prey in the air?  
  
“What the hell is going on here?” 

“Kid, just go back to you fancy sections and stay there!” 

Eren did his best to drown out Horse-face and Gunther’s voices, his senses straining to find some sort of clue. He thought he picked up the scent of Malform, but was it so unusual when they might stake out the park occasionally? Was the scent growing stronger? There were so many people about, so many children, courting couples, parents and adults on break – wait, who was that person quickly walking away, the tall figure with the hunched shoulders, the short, brown hair - wasn’t he familiar? Wasn’t that scent, that faint, elusive scent enough to cause Eren’s fangs to drop and the world to wash into grey? He took a quick step forward, desperate to get a better look, and started to choke when his collar was yanked back with force.  
  
“What the *fuck* did I just say?” 

He glanced away from Captain Ackerman’s deliberately blank face to the departing figure, and caught a glimpse of tan skin and a red, glowing eye. “Now! Call everyone now!” he shouted as he forced his hands to go for his blades instead of using his claws. His heart clenched inside of his chest when a moment later, a loud roar echoed over the open space. “*NOW*, dammit!” 

The captain let out a curse of his own and released him so he could unsheathe his blades, busy ordering all of the Freedom Corps fighters in the immediate vicinity to the park. He seemed to realize the same thing that Eren did – the lack of buildings in the vicinity and the stunted trees meant that their gauntlets would be next to useless in the park. 

“What the hell is going on?” Horse-face pushed himself forward to stand next to Eren.  
  
“Let’s hope you can use those blades for something other than practice,” Eren warned him before dashing off in the direction where the scent of Malform was the strongest. 

Gunther was yelling at the parents to gather up their children when what looked to be a sewer grate popped into the air and several Malform surged forward. Great, the fucking sewers, the captain was just going to *love* this. “Hey, Napoleon! Think you’re going to get a little dirty today!” Eren called out as he leapt into the fray, twisting about with blades held high. He gritted his teeth as he felt claws slash into his right thigh and along his back yet kept his arms moving, slashing out with the blades whipping through the air. That was two Malform down before his feet touched the ground, right leg sweeping around to help launch him again, just missing another swipe of claws, left arm extended out and down. It was difficult to keep his speed in check, to not move as quickly as he could when there were constant stings of pain, but at least he could channel the hunger and the urge to kill into the strength it took to force metal through muscle and bone. 

There was an annoyed grunt as the captain landed next to him, already covered in grime and Malform blood. “I keep telling you, that’s *Captain Napoleon*, *brat*.” His left eye twitched at the sound of a child screaming, the noise cut short. “Come on, we’re supposed to be working.” 

Wondering how much longer until reinforcements arrived, Eren followed the captain into the fracas, watching the man’s back as they did their best to scatter the attacking Malform from a cluster of children huddled inside a pile of brightly colored pipes, the bodies of adults lying in a ring outside. Eren could understand why the captain was considered one of the Corps’ best as the man cut through the Malform with a misleading ease, his blade in constant motion despite the few times the creatures got through his guard. He didn’t even falter when the rest of the Freedom Corps began to show up, their gauntlets dropping them off on the outskirts of the park. 

“Save the civilians first!” Captain Ackerman barked out. “Then contain the Malform and eliminate them!” He barely blinked when Eren ran his left blade through a Malform that was about to slash along his spine, merely nodded in acknowledgement before taking off its head. Eren grimaced as he had to pull his blade free from its rapidly decomposing body and took a deep breath, only to hear a scuffling sound behind him. 

He spun around to find a small body hurtling itself at him, what appeared to be a child but what must have been one of the first victims now turned. “Shit, they’re turning fast!” he warned as he cut off its head. 

A startled moan of pain from his left side made him turn to find Captain Ackerman standing over a similar small, beheaded corpse, left hand pressed to his thigh as red spread quickly along the white material. “Are you all right?” Eren asked as he stumbled forward, hands fumbling for the pouch on his right side which contained some bandages. He managed to open it and toss a packet to the man before another Malform lunged at them. 

“Yeah, I’ve just never seen the dead turn so quickly.” There was a sharp grunt which probably meant that the captain was applying the pressure bandage, but Eren was a little busy trying to keep his face from being clawed off – yeah, it would grow back, but that always hurt like a bitch. “Have you?” 

“One… sec.” A low growl slipped free while Eren hacked his blade through the Malform’s neck. “You’re not gonna like what I have to say.” 

“I’ve noticed that trend.” Captain Ackerman picked up his dropped blade and took a tentative step toward Eren’s side, as if testing his wounded leg, and then strode forth with more confidence into the fighting. “What?” 

Eren paused to remove the head from a body that they came across, trying not to think of how young the boy looked. “Either these Malform are really, really old, or they’ve recently been turned by a true vampire.” Glancing up at the blank look on the captain’s bloodied face, he knew that he’d have to give more of an explanation than that, but now wasn’t the time when people were dying all around them. Especially when the next body they came across was one of their own, wearing a Freedom Corps uniform. Captain Ackerman handled that task, his expression grim as his blade swung down. 

The fighting soon thinned out, thanks to the arrival of the Freedom Corps, but the Malform continued on to the bitter end, driven by the true vampire’s call earlier. It didn’t help that anyone infected and gravely wounded or dead was beginning to turn as well, which added the Malform numbers. Eren felt that the remaining Freedom Corps fighters were battling not so much the undead creatures but themselves, worn out by their wounds and having to put down fellow humans. He bit back on a snarl as he lashed out with his blade at a turned woman who was trying to rip out Gunther’s intestines while the man took care of another badly wounded child. The man managed a tired ‘thanks’ before forcing himself up to tend to another still figure lying a few feet away. 

Now that most of the Malform appeared to be killed, Eren went in search of Captain Ackerman, who had split from him in the last few minutes. He found the man yelling at one of the two MPs who had followed them to the park and actually managed to hold their own during the attack. Horse-face was covered in dark Malform blood and nursing his left arm while standing in front of a wheezing child who couldn’t be more than four or five years old. Kneeling beside the little girl, Baldy was doing his best to stem the slowing flow of blood from her copious wounds. The scent rising up…  
  
“I’m telling you, get out of my way,” Captain Ackerman growled out, his right blade held up as if he was ready to strike down the idiot MP. 

“No! The medics should be arriving any minute now! They can save her!” Horse-face held up his own blade, the weapon wavering in his grip. “You’re as much a monster as those undead freaks!” 

Oh for fuck’s sake… Eren stepped forward, struggling hard not to let his true nature reveal itself in face of the danger. “You’re going to get yourself killed, you fucking idiot,” he snarled as he shoved the idiot aside, using just a touch more speed than natural. He heard Captain Ackerman move behind him and assumed that the struggle was from the captain subduing Horse-face; Baldy looked up at him, doing his best to appear fierce, and quickly yelped and ducked aside to avoid the swinging blade.  
  
“You’re murderers! Both of you are murder-ah…” It sounded as if Horse-face was about to lose his lunch as the flesh began to melt away from the beheaded body, leaving a small skeleton in its wake, still wrapped in a torn and blood-stained pink and white dress. Baldy knelt on his hands and knees and did vomit. 

Wiping his blade on his already filthy pants, Eren turned to glare at Horse-face. “She was a few seconds away from tearing out your friend’s throat. Now stay out of the way of people who know what the hell they’re doing before you get anyone else killed.” 

Horse-face, his face pale and his throat moving up and down as if swallowing to keep himself from throwing up as well, shook his head. “How… how can you do such a thing? She was just a kid!” 

“And some of them are our own people,” Captain Ackerman ground out as he pushed the asshole away as if disgusted by his presence. “It doesn’t matter who they are once they’re infected because they’re gone for good – only the living matter. Get out of my sight while we do the real work and save lives.” 

Eren watched the short-tempered man limp away for a few seconds and followed, not even bothering to look after the two MPs anymore. Some people got what the Freedom Corps had to do in order to protect humanity, and some didn’t. More than likely, it was why the two assholes had joined the Military Police in the first place, willing to spend their lives in a mostly comfortable position rather than risk it and face true hardship. They didn’t know about how you had to sacrifice to ensure survival, how life was messy, tragic and demanding as hell… and yet so satisfying at the same time. 

They assisted in preventing several more victims from turning before Captain Ackerman’s left leg gave out on him. Noticing how the man’s skin had taken on an ashy pallor and was damp to the touch, Eren swore and dragged him over to an abandoned swing set away from everyone else. 

“I’m fine,” Captain Ackerman hissed, his eyes glazed and his voice lacking its usual virulence.

 “How much blood did you lose?” When the stubborn bastard just sat there, Eren sighed in exasperation. “I can’t tell what’s yours and what’s Malform because you’re covered in both, but you *reek*. That’s not a good sign.” He reached into a back pouch to pull out a small flask of water. 

Captain Ackerman snorted, the sound weak as if he was lacking in energy. “Your bedside manner sucks, brat.” He made to run his hands through his bangs, stiff with sweat and gore, then caught sight of his filthy glove. “Damn but I want a shower. The medics will be here soon.” 

Yes, and they’d treat the civilians first, once they were assured that there were no more Malform lurking around and no chance of anyone else turning. Eren drank a mouthful of water then glanced about to make sure that no one was paying them any attention. “Something tells me it won’t do you much good to wait that long.” Wondering why he was so driven to do this, he tugged up the heel of his right glove to expose the fleshy part of his hand and bit into it, grateful that his teeth were sharp. The blood began to flow immediately, enough for several thick drops to fall into the flask before the wound healed. Captain Ackerman stared at him in confusion during the process. “All right, drink this up.” 

It was rare to see such a look of surprise on that elegant, tired face. “Are you out of your fucking mind? Did your brains get scrambled today or what? You’re the va-“ Captain Ackerman forced his mouth shut and shook his head. “No *fucking* way.” 

Eren let out a sharp breath as he shoved the flask toward the stubborn bastard. “Yes, fucking way! Look, your leg was bitten, right? You’ve lost a lot of blood and you’re partially infected, the muscle’s torn and you probably messed it up on top of that by fighting,” he insisted. “Captain Hange’s on to something when she said we’ve got a healing factor, that our cells regenerate. It’s in our blood. If you drink it, you get the same benefits for a little while.” When the man just stared at him in abhorrence, he leaned forward, voice dropping even lower. “How old do you think Krista really is?” He wasn’t ready to give up the truth about Armin just yet, but Ymir and Krista were fair game. 

“What?” Startled by the question, Captain Ackerman accepted the small water flask and blinked a couple of times, the shadows beneath his eyes more pronounced due to exhaustion and blood loss. “She’s what, sixteen? Seventeen?” 

“Make that at least thirty-eight and you’d be right.” Eren forced the man’s long, slender fingers to tighten around the bottle. “Long term drinking nearly halts the aging process and ensures constant good health. Short term promotes accelerated healing.” 

Assessing grey eyes studied him intently, as if looking for some sort of trap. “And? What else?” 

“Nothing else.” Eren slumped against one of the thick wires holding up the plastic swing. “I promise you, I wouldn’t do this if there were any adverse effects. It’ll help you heal and fight off the infection better than anything a medic can do for you right now, until Captain Hange patches you up.” For some unfathomable reason, he didn’t like the idea of losing this infuriating man – the Freedom Corps certainly needed someone of his caliber.

Captain Ackerman continued to study him for a moment longer before raising the flask to his lips. He grimaced for a few seconds before drinking it straight down, the look on his pale, sweaty face almost adorable. “Ugh, gross,” he complained once the bottle was dry. 

“Oh, please, you could barely taste the small amount that was in there.” Eren frowned as he took back the metal bottle. 

“It’s the thought that I willingly drank brat blood.” Captain Ackerman wiped at his lips as if to rid himself of some awful taste. “I’ll probably be bratty by osmosis now.” 

Eren couldn’t resist himself. “No, but you’ll be my willing sex slave from now on, burning for my touch.” He laughed at shock on the man’s face. “Just kidding! I told you no side effects.” He laughed despite the smack to his ribs he received, deciding that being able to recall that alarmed look for years to come made the hit worthwhile. 

He wasn’t surprised when he found himself yanked onto his feet, the captain already appearing well on the way to recuperating. What was surprising was when another hit didn’t follow, but a question after the captain let go of his torn jacket. “If that stuff is so potent, why is Ymir after you to do her a favor?” 

“Because it just makes you healthier and… well, we’ll say ‘freezes’ you. It doesn’t make you stronger or faster, and once you stop taking it, you go back to normal. If she were to be separated from Krista, Krista would be defenseless.” 

The man grunted once and wiped at his lips with the back of his right hand again. “Makes sense.” He looked out over the once pristine playground, now covered with gore, disintegrating bodies, wounded and exhausted Freedom Corps fighters as well as huddled groups of civilians. A tall figure was striding in their direction; from the glint of gold in the low dome lights, Eren recognized the man as Commander Smith. Behind him were two dark-haired figures, probably Captain Hange and Mikasa. “We’ll talk some more once I’m done with Erwin’s debriefing – come to my quarters after dinner is over. You owe me an explanation about that vampire comment and how that scream set everything off. It happened back at the market, too.” 

“Yeah, I know.” Eren pulled off his ruined gloves so he could rub at his tired eyes, wishing this was one of the times when he could just climb something and hide for a few days. Yet there was Mikasa rushing toward him with an anxious expression on her face, so he forced a weary smile and allowed her to hug him close despite the amount of grime he was wearing. She didn’t let go for at least a minute. 

“You okay?” she asked once she stepped back to take a good look at him, her sharp eyes quick to notice the tears in his uniform, all the spots that a Malform had scored a hit; the wounds were long healed, and thankfully he was covered in enough gore that no one would notice that some of the blood was his own. 

“I’m…” Why was it so difficult to lie to her? He sighed and closed his eyes, his forehead resting against hers. He kept his eyes closed as he mouthed one word, ‘Bertolt’. He could feel the shock as it moved through her body, the way it tensed up in a fight or flight reaction. 

“Are you certain?” 

“Yeah.” He forced open his tired eyes and gave her a sad smile. “So if he’s here….”  
  
If he was here, then that meant it was more than likely the rest of the trio were, too. 

******* 

Levi shuffled over to his desk, a pot of hot tea held carefully in his hands; Hange had looked at his wounds, shocked at how well the Malform bite on his leg in particular was healing. He’d felt the teeth tearing into him and knew it was deep and nasty, knew that a wound like that would take weeks to heal even with the aid of medical nanos to clean it and keep the remaining vessels going. Yet Eren’s blood had sped up the process so much that he’d be out only a matter of days, if that. Levi had lied to Hange and said that the bite wasn’t too bad, but he knew his friend wasn’t buying it. However, she merely gave him a knowing look, patched him up and told him they’d talk about it later.

Dammit, he *hated* it when the crazy bitch pulled this ‘understanding’ shit, it just meant that Hange would wait until his guard was down and then wring every last bit of information out of him. She’d use the time until then to gather all of the data she could and *nail* his ass with it. Manipulative, insane, shitty glasses….

He’d just set the pot of tea down when there was a tentative knock on the door. Careful to not put too much pressure on his left leg when he turned around, he went to let Eren in.

The brat was dressed in the Corps’ ‘casual’ outfit of white pants and a grey pullover, the laces left undone. His hair was damp as if he hadn’t bothered to do more than run a towel over it after getting out of the shower – hell, the kid didn’t seem to do more than run his fingers through his hair, either. The highly tousled strands framed his face, a few of them falling into his luminous eyes which were wide as they stared back at Levi.

“Uhm, are you sure I should be here?” He peered warily into the room as if it were some sort of trap.

“Why shouldn’t you?” Levi shrugged before hobbling back to his desk.

“But, you look as if you want to be alone.” Eren hovered next to the closed door. “Captain.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, I’m not in uniform all damn day.” Levi glared at the brat while he settled in the chair. “And I drank your shitty blood, I think you can call me ‘Levi’ while we’re in private.” He didn’t understand what the big deal was about him sitting here in a pair of black pants, a white shirt and a black cardigan. Wasn’t as if he was parading around in just his boxers.

Eren hovered near the door for a few more seconds before letting out a slow breath and creeping toward the desk. “I keep waiting to get my ass kicked or something.”

“Give me a day or two to get back in fighting form, first. Now, tea?”

His answer managed to wring a smile from the brat. “When you put it that way, it makes sense. And yes, please.” Eren sat down in the chair positioned in front of the desk and seemed to relax, though his eyes retained a hint of wariness. “I don’t think I’ve seen you out of uniform before.”

Levi clicked his tongue while he poured the tea. “I wasn’t born in the damn thing. And with the way they’ve been destroyed since I’ve met you, I’ll be running around in my robe pretty soon.” He glared at the brat as he handed over a tea cup.

A spark of interest lit up Eren’s face as he accepted the beverage, making him appear more than his usual jailbait self. “That might actually be fun to see. Imagine the Malform wouldn’t know what to do with you flying through the air at them, robe flapping in the breeze and mooning them as you chop off their heads.” His golden eyes sparkled over the rim of his cup when he took a sip. “Oh, this is good,” he moaned a moment later.

“Of course it is,” Levi scoffed as he forced himself to look away from the ‘kid’. “And don’t think I’m not going to kick your ass for that nonsense. *Such* a brat.” He tsk’ed while settling back into his own chair while holding his own cup of tea.

“Yeah, yeah, do it after I finish my tea.” Eren made happy little noises while he continued to drink. “Oh, speaking of kicking ass, how’s the leg?”

It was nice to find another tea-lover, since Levi now knew how to bribe the brat. “I’m very pleased to report that you’ll be drained dry once Hange makes the connection between you and how I’m healing so quickly.” He gave Eren an evil grin when he paled beneath what seemed to be a natural tan. “Yeah, thought that’d make you happy. Meanwhile, I’m delighted to say that most of my injuries are nothing more than scratches now, and the bite’ll probably be gone in a couple of days.” Levi finished his tea and set the cup aside. “No side effects, *right*?” Other than feeling better than he ever had after a nasty battle with Malforms, he didn’t notice anything different about himself.

“I told you, nothing.” Eren scowled for a moment, failing so adorably at trying to appear bad-ass. “We wouldn’t use our blood like that if there were – do you think Ymir would allow Krista to drink it?”

The snarky bitch did seem to have it bad for the blonde… “It’s a pretty good argument, I’ll admit. But if I grow fangs tonight, I’m-“

“You’re kicking my ass. Sheesh, your threats are rather lame, you know?” Eren huffed out a breath, causing his long bangs to pop up in the air before falling back into those mesmerizing eyes of his.

“Because it’s not the words you need to look out for, but my foot connecting with your foolish head.” Levi bared his teeth in a ‘grin’ at the idiot. “Now that we’ve settled that particularly gross topic, on to the amusing other things that happened at the park.” He lifted the teapot and waited for Eren to hold up his cup to be refilled. Once they both fixed their tea, he leaned back in his chair, his cup held between his fingertips. “How did everyone turn so quickly?”

“Glad I don’t have much of an appetite,” Eren muttered against the rim of the porcelain teacup. He took a long sip before setting it aside, showing appropriate concern for its delicateness. “Look, it’s important to remember what Ymir said about her and the last pureblood. Mikasa and I don’t know too much about vampires because we’re not ones,” his eyes flashed as he spoke the words a bit too harshly, as if being too insistent about the topic, “and we’ve spent a good bit of our lives running *from* them. But we’ve picked up information here and there. From what we’ve gathered, purebloods had the best chance of turning people into other vampires.”

Levi made a tsk’ing sound, annoyed that he wasn’t getting a straight, simple answer. “Will you be getting to the point sometime tonight?”  
  
Eren glared at him, his hands clenched into fists as if annoyed that he wasn’t being taken seriously. “There *isn’t* a straight, simple answer when it comes to vampires, get used to it,” he snapped. Then he took a deep breath before he continued. “Anyway, she’s mostly responsible for the death of the last one. Then things got all messed up – the environment, humans with their diseases and what they were putting into their bodies – something happened and the majority of vampires turned after that ended up being mutated, they’re what we call the Malform. From what we know, the remaining true vampires are either very old or are like a one in a million chance of someone being turned the ‘right’ way.”

“So vampires could theoretically still turn people…”

“But most of the time – almost *all* of the time – they’ll end up as Malform,” Eren agreed as he leaned forward in the chair. “Ymir *could* try to turn Krista, but the odds aren’t in her favor. She’d almost certainly turn into a Malform.”  
  
Levi was understanding why the vampires wanted Eren so badly, and not only because of the whole sunlight thing. “But you turned Mikasa and she was fine.”

“Yeah.” Eren’s expression became strained and he took to playing with his hair again. “I mean, maybe the next person I turn won’t be fine, but I’m still mostly human and so is Mikasa, there’s no reason to suspect that the serum won’t continue to work. Especially since Grisha implied that it would.” He gave his head a quick shake. “Anyway, back to the vampires. So whomever they turn will most likely be Malform. They’re pretty good about not leaving any evidence behind – they have to be if they’re living among humans, but if they do let their victims turn, then those Malform are stronger and faster than the others. They also have a faster infection rate. It dissipates over time – their own progeny are a little weaker, they can’t infect as quickly, so on and so forth, but the first and second generation are usually a nightmares to fight. It’s why they were able to overwhelm mankind so quickly during the solar flares.”

Oh, Hange was going to *love* hearing about this – and insist upon getting her hands on one of those undead fuckers like the insane psycho she was. Levi rubbed his face with his left hand and wondered if he could get Erwin to agree to tranqing the hyper bitch after she was told the news. That or let Mike handle her for the next few days. “So you’re basically saying that vampires made the Malform we were fighting today.” As if he didn’t have enough reasons to hunt down and kill the undead assholes.

“Hmm, that would be it.” Eren picked up his teacup and drained it in a couple of swallows. “One of them was even there right before it started – that was him you heard roaring. Somehow, whenever they do that it draws the Malform out of hiding and makes them berserk.”

“Great, so they know how to do a Malform dinner call.” Levi felt a headache coming on – this brat should have a warning label slapped on his forehead. “You know how to do anything like that?”

Eren’s eyes went wide and he slumped back in his chair. “Control the Malform? No! I’ve never tried to do anything but eat or kill them! I’ve just been happy that most times, my presence drives the bastards away!”

“Relax, there’s no reason to get your panties in such a twist,” Levi told the brat. “Just saying it would be good if you knew something like that. You share a lot of the same characteristics, after all.”

The kid sat there and scowled as if he’d offended him, but he kept his mouth shut and appeared to be thinking it through for a minute or two. “I wouldn’t even know where to start. Maybe Ymir might have an idea.”

“It’s worth a shot.” Levi didn’t point out that Ymir would probably demand something in return for helping out Eren, such as that favor for Krista; he really didn’t see how Eren was going to squirm his way out of that for much longer. Oh well, it wasn’t like it was his problem, not unless Mikasa took it into her fool head to go after the manipulative vampire. Then Erwin would probably insist he separate the two….

The room was quiet for a couple of minutes, him sitting there thinking about how ridiculous his life had become lately and Eren probably trying to figure out how to approach Ymir without becoming the woman’s bitch.  It surprised Levi, how comfortable this was – normally he just wanted to be alone at night to drink his tea and deal with the endless paperwork. Yet Eren could be quiet, could put away the attitude and snark as he’d proven last night, silent until some random thought crossed Levi’s mind that he found himself willing to share. He had enjoyed that surprisingly easy companionship, that comforting warmth soaking into his side…

All of a sudden, the quiet was too much. “So tell me, how old is your friend, Armin? He can’t be just eighteen or so.” Levi watched Eren closely to see how the brat would react, wanting to break the peacefulness of the room.

Eren stilled for a moment before he rose from the chair and then half turned while looking at Levi. “What makes you think he’s any older than he appears?” There was a friendly, innocuous half-smile on his attractive face, a smile that had probably fooled thousands of people over the years. No – much more than that.

“Because I can’t see some kid without any formal schooling being smarter than Hange,” Levi huffed. “Even if he is brilliant. She’s devoted her life to science.”

The explanation earned him a nonchalant shrug. “So what if he didn’t go to any school? Mikasa and I picked up a lot of knowledge over the years.”

“Yeah, and you’ve admitted to spending a lot of time just trying to survive, too. How long have you been feeding him your blood?”

There was a bit of added luminescence to Eren’s golden eyes, as well as some heat to his words when he spoke. “I’d rather you didn’t pursue this line of questioning. We’re talking about Armin’s life – it’s his decision to come forward about it.”

Levi considered that for a few seconds. “Why don’t you just turn him?”

He thought that maybe he’d pushed too far, judging from the way Eren’s lithe body tensed at the question, but a couple of seconds later it relaxed as Eren let out a quick, sharp breath. “Because he’s not the type to be turned.” The decisive way he answered made it clear that the brat had put a lot of consideration into the matter. “He’s of too much value to the living, with that mind of his.”

‘The living’. Something bitter inside of Levi twisted upon hearing that. He ran his fingers along the fragile porcelain of his tea cup and frowned. “I’d think he’d be of more value to them if he could live for centuries, putting that precious brain of his to use.” A hint of sarcasm crept into his voice.

Eren turned fully to face him, his expression tinged with sadness and his hands fidgeting with his hair, combing through it and tucking it back. “Not really. There’s a lot of death involved with living so long, and we – Mikasa and I – don’t want that for Armin. It would change him too much.” The sadness deepened, darkened those beautiful eyes of his. “We don’t want to see what would happen to that mind of his if it became warped with death – we *have* seen something like it, and humanity’s been through enough. It’s best that he lives long enough to find Grisha’s research and do something with it.” There was a sense of finality to his words, a sign that he wouldn’t change his stance on the topic.

At least someone knew where to draw a line in this fucked up world. “And what about you? Do you ever regret what Grisha did to you?” There were days that Levi certainly regretted being the one left to survive, yet he still kept going.

That sad smile returned, along with some of the light to Eren’s eyes. “Me? What’s to regret? This life means that there’s always death around me, but if there’s one thing I’ve accepted over the years, it’s that the death was always there in the first place. I just have to turn it around, to make it matter somehow and protect the ones I love. Then I have meaning.” He didn’t wait for Levi to ask any more questions, he just nodded in goodbye and left, quiet as a shadow while Levi stared at the delicate tea cup on the desk before him.

Eren’s final words reverberated inside Levi’s head as he stared into the empty cup. For so long, death seemed to define his world, too. The deaths of those he cared for, the deaths of those who sought to tear him down, the deaths of those shitty undead and the poor bastards he couldn’t save. Eren was right in that the only sense of victory to be gained was in keeping those he’d allowed in, those he’d taken on as his own, safe. Who would have thought that he and an ageless, blood-sucking brat would have so much in common?

He forced himself to stand up and carry the dirty cups and teapot over to the sink so he could wash them before preparing for bed, mind busy thinking about everything that Eren had told him tonight. It would be another fun morning chat with Erwin, but at least he could sit back and watch while that conniving bastard was unleashed on the plotting vampires.

Figuring that he’d get a couple of hours sleep before waking up and tackling his paperwork, Levi lay down in bed, mind haunted by the image of luminous golden eyes shadowed by sorrow.

*******

Mikasa hurried after Captain Hange, annoyed at how quickly the quirky woman walked. She certainly put those long legs to good use, and could babble on and on about useless things at the same time. “-structure is rather bland, isn’t it? I mean, I’ve read about the various styles pre-collapse and must say I’m very impressed! So many famous architects! So many different creative styles! Imagine making a home out of paper and wood with no nails whatsoever.” She turned to look at Mikasa. “Did you ever live in a home of paper and wood? Pre-collapse, I mean.” 

“Uhm, I lived in an apartment building, two refurbished farmhouses and then a condo. Lots of nails, I believe.” 

“Oh. Well, I believe it was your ethnicity that favored the wood and paper.” Hange appeared disappointed to have her theory shot down. “You did say that your mother was-“  
  
Mikasa had reached her limit of what appeared to be senseless questions and tangents. “Captain, *what* are we doing out here?”  

The insane woman slowed down for a few steps and blinked a few times, appearing as if an owl with her eyes enlarged by the thick glasses. “What, I didn’t tell you?” 

“No, you did not,” Mikasa gritted out through her teeth. “You just told me to ‘come’.” As if she was a dog. 

“Oh.” Hange blinked a few more times. “Well, we’re meeting up with Anka Rheinberger from the Engineers. She’d like our opinion on the Malform using the sewers yesterday.” 

The explanation was a bit surprising – it was better than going on some silly errand for scientific equipment or the captain seeing how Mikasa would react to shopping or ‘outside stimuli’. Still, she’d rather be at the base, where Eren was, in case there was trouble. “Do you do this often, working with the Engineers?” 

Captain Hange made a low, humming sound for a few seconds. “We haven’t so much in the past, but Commander Pixis and Erwin are good at thinking outside of the box and feel it’s pointless, this whole group rivalry thing. Both of them are big on doing whatever is necessary for the benefit of mankind, and they believe in pooling resources to do just that.” She sounded so serious just then, until she clapped her hands and laughed. “So that means we get to work together and find out fun new things!” 

All right. “So I’m here with you… why exactly?” If this had something to do with Eren revealing to Captain Ackerman the location of the tunnels, she would fillet that short bastard. 

“Because you should know more than anyone about the structure of the domes, right?” Captain Hange turned serious once again. “I mean, you’ve been around them… how long?” She stared pointedly at Mikasa until she had to squirm in discomfort. “Not to mention the whole Malform thing.”  
  
“You may have a point.” She let her chin drop and her hair hang forward to hide her face, which seemed to signal to the scientist that she didn’t wish to talk anymore until they reached their destination.  

They found the female Engineer not too far from the park where the Malform had attacked the day before, dressed in dark green and grey overalls bearing the symbol of a quartered shield emblazoned with roses on the back. She smiled when she saw Captain Hange, the expression cooling a little when she noticed Mikasa. “I would have thought that you’d bring Mike or Moblit along.”  
  
“No, this is someone even better!” Captain Hange laughed as she motioned toward Mikasa. “This is Mikasa Stieger, one of our newest members. She’s somewhat of a history and Malform specialist.” 

“Oh.” Anka smiled as she held out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” 

“Likewise.” Mikasa shook her hand and was comforted by how strong it was, the feel of callouses that came from hard work. “So, what are you doing here?” 

“We’re looking into the sewers to try and figure out how so many Malforms were able to attack an open space without drawing any attention beforehand.” She motioned toward an open drain, where faint voices could be heard floating up out of the small portal. “We’ve found some evidence of them being down there within a block radius of the park, now if only we can track their progress beneath the dome to a possible nest or even one of the infamous tunnel exits.” 

That wasn’t going to happen – Mikasa had never come across a tunnel network that was tied into a dome’s sewer system, which was probably why the Malform had used the sewers yesterday. There was just too much of a chance of humans stumbling across the tunnels if they were part of the sewers, as sewers needed regular maintenance. “I’d be careful to search in large enough teams,” she warned. “If you do come across any Malform, they will most likely be wounded.” Any Malform left behind in the sewers would probably be too wounded to escape very far… or ones deliberately left there as ‘traps’. 

Anka nodded. “We’ll keep that in mind. The last thing we want is to give them any more casualties after yesterday.” For a moment, the woman’s pretty face hardened into something dark. 

“Another thing to consider is that Trost is one of the older domes. That usually means they built new sewers on top of the older, less effective ones.” Mikasa decided that it wouldn’t hurt to give the Engineers a bit of a warning, especially if the others were using the sewers. “I’d look for any unmarked panels that don’t match up on your blueprints, or odd seams and weldings. They should lead to the lower levels.” 

Both Captain Hange and Anka stared at her in shock, causing her to tug up her scarf in unease at the attention. “I… hadn’t thought of that,” Anka said, her tone subdued. Then she shook herself and pulled out a datapad, which she began to type into at a furious pace. “Lower levels. Of course. We tend to think of what’s there to be it.” 

Mikasa stood there and watched while the two women studied the datapad for several minutes, acting excited about several points on what seemed to be digital blueprints. The Engineers’ operation drew the attention of people out and about that day, mostly those single people busy going to some destination as the loss of so many children appeared to have spooked families and kept them indoors. 

It was easy to recognize the MP uniform from a distance, so Mikasa was willing to ignore the two women sauntering forward at a slow pace, checking this and that along the quiet street. Then a peculiar scent teased at her memory, making her heart pound in her chest and her breath catch in her throat. Her spine straightened as she snapped her head in the direction of the pair, doing her best to keep control of herself while her attention zeroed in on the shorter of the two, the one with her straight blonde hair pulled back in a low ponytail. 

“Hey, you Mudders find anything interesting down there,” the one with the wavy light brown called out, her voice heavy with sarcasm. “Other than a bunch of shit and roaches?” 

Anka scowled at the young woman while she tucked away her datapad. “Is there something I can do to help you?” Even though the words were polite, she spoke with enough of a chill to make it clear that the two MPs were unwanted there. 

The young woman with the wavy hair wrinkled her nose. “I hope not, if you’ve been playing in shit. Right, Annie?” She glanced at her partner, a cruel grin on her face, then frowned when she noticed that the other girl was busy staring at Mikasa. “Annie?” 

Mikasa stared back, desperate not to react, to not give in to the urge to lash out, to tear into a hated enemy before it had a chance to follow her back and harm Eren. No, don’t give the bitch the satisfaction, she told herself. Judging from the pleased grin on Annie’s sharp face, the back-stabbing bitch knew what was going through her head. 

“Let them play in the sewers if it makes them happy. *We* know the fun stuff’s up here, *right*? Just takes a little time and effort to find it, but it’ll be worth it in the end.” Annie lifted her left hand to her lips as if to wipe them clean and brushed a golden ring, one bearing a stone of amber the color of Eren’s eyes, against them. 

“Uhh… whatever.” The sarcastic one shrugged and followed Annie as she walked away. “Have fun playing in the filth,” she called out as they left. 

Mikasa forced herself to breathe, to control herself, to remain still. Don’t give in, don’t let Annie control you anymore than she already has, she repeated again and again until the vampire was out of her sight. Only then did she allow her body to react, to turn away swiftly and walk in the other direction, leaving Captain Hange behind, until she found the nearest alley where she could punch a wall with all her might and scream out her frustration.  

She was still struggling with her fear and anger when Captain Hange approached with caution. “Ah, is everything all right?” 

Wasn’t the answer obvious? Wishing that Eren was here, Mikasa wiped at her eyes before she answered. “Not really.”  
  
“Yeah, I sorta guessed that.” Captain Hange slowly approached a little closer and leaned against the wall about a foot away, her eyes drawn to Mikasa’s bloody but mostly healed hand. “So, have a problem with MPs?” 

That was one way of putting it. Mikasa felt a small, strangled laugh escape from her. “You might say that, though it’s really one in particular.” She forced herself to meet the captain’s eyes. “The short one with the ponytail.” 

“Hmm, you mean the one whom Levi wouldn’t want to kill in an instant?” 

“I don’t know about that.” Mikasa wiped at the drying blood on her hand. “She’s a vampire.” 

Captain Hange snapped to full attention. “What? You mean one of them is in the MPs?” She snatched at her notepad and started to write quickly. 

“It’s even worse, because Eren and I know her very well. If she’s here, then there’s at least two others, and I’m willing to bet one or both are in the MPs with her.” She thought about Bertolt and Reiner as her fist clenched. “They’re usually a matched set.” 

The captain’s pen stilled for a moment. “Know each other well, eh? So a bit of history. That’s not good.” 

“No, because that means they’ll use that knowledge to come after Eren however they can.” And now they knew *where* Eren was. Mikasa clutched at her scarf. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence, them being here while we are.” Somehow, they’d tracked them down and were determined to get to him. There was no way that Mikasa was ever going to let that happen. Not while she drew breath, not while she had an ounce of strength left in her. 

“I see.” Captain Hange’s expression lost all of its usual jovialness as she tucked away her notebook. “Well, let’s tell Anka that we need to get back to the base. Erwin and Levi need to know that the enemy has infiltrated the MPs so they can get started on the battle plans.” She didn’t wait for Mikasa as she headed toward the street. 

Mikasa stared after her for several seconds; she had followed Eren and Armin into the Freedom Corps because they thought it was a good idea, willing to go along for the sake of the group. For the first time, she was beginning to see the logic in their decision, in how perhaps they were right in there being strength in numbers. If they had indeed found allies willing to stand beside them… well, she’d hold off on killing the short bastard for a little longer.

*******


	11. Freak Like Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaannndddd we're officially at explicit rating now. It's not the most 'explicit' explicit scene out there, but we're starting to delve into Eren's relationships and how some of them from the past are coming back to bite him (no pun intended) so... Yeah, figured it was time. Please see the note at the end. Also, please remember the previous note about how that while Eren is physically young, his mental age does put him at/past the age of consent (and the same for Mikasa).
> 
> Also, it's another flashback chapter! We'll get back to the 'present' in the next chapter.
> 
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!

*******

Eren edged around the group of people gathered about the large bonfire, mindful of where everyone was sitting or standing within the shell of the old church. Mikasa was off bartering for new supplies - necessities such as shoes, bullets and soap - since she appeared the oldest and was taken the most serious by ‘adults’. It helped that she remained calm when being talked down to by people, instead of losing her temper like Eren. He wished he could blame it on the change….

At least they’d done their research and knew that this base was mostly trust-worthy, enough so that this was their second time trading the medical supplies they’d scavenged during their hunts. Too bad that they wouldn’t be able to return here more than another time or two, since in a few more months someone would realize that at least he wasn’t aging, not to mention they’d pretty much picked the surrounding area clean of supplies and would have to move on. It was getting more and more difficult to find any non-expired medicine at this point.

Eren wondered how many people who’d survived the solar flares, the Malform attacks, loss of electricity and the collapse of civilization in general were now dying because of the shortage of drugs. He stared at the bedraggled people huddled around the dancing flames as if it really would hold back the monsters in the night and felt a bit of pity for them; they were trying so hard to rebuild a society that wasn’t really worth it, in his opinion. Look at how they treated him and Mikasa. Look at what the sick would have to pay to get the few remaining drugs that would soon vanish.

Leaning against a crumbling wall that still held traces of a once ornate stone mosaic, he noticed that there was someone staring back at him. It was the same teenager who often could be found eyeing him when he last came to visit, a tall, handsome kid in his late teens with dark hair and pale blue eyes. The boy smiled at Eren before looking away to say something to the woman standing beside him, most likely his mother. Eren watched him for a minute, until the kid walked away.

A strange sort of hunger grew in him while he’d gazed at the other boy, a hunger different from the one that drove him out to hunt Malform. He knew that he was gay, that he didn’t care for girls, but it had been a recent discovery back in Köln, back before everything had-. He shook his head to clear it of the awful memory of that night on the roof, preferring instead to think of the day not too long after they’d moved into the condo when his mother had sat him and Mikasa down at the dining room table.

She’d appeared so nervous with her hands twisting in the skirt of her yellow dress, which had made him and Mikasa nervous as well, and insisted that she’d wanted to talk to them. Worried that something was wrong, that she was going to tell them that she wasn’t well or that she was leaving his father, Eren had leapt to his feet and gone to hug her. She’d laughed and finally said what the ‘talk’ was about, that she knew they were young but that they were in a bigger city now, and these ‘things’ were happening to kids who were younger and younger all the time. She just wanted them to know that she was there for them, that she would listen whenever they did want to talk about ‘it’. Eren had yelled that she was embarrassing them while Mikasa had blushed and pulled the scarf halfway over her face, and his mother had laughed again and said it was good because why should she be the only one embarrassed just then? He wished that he’d found the nerve to talk to her, to tell her that he didn’t find girls attractive, but he’d been so afraid of what his father would think-

“Hey.”

Eren nearly hissed in shock at the sound of a voice so close to him, and blinked several times before he turned around to make sure that his eyes weren’t glowing. He’d been so lost in his memories that he hadn’t heard another person approach, and cocked his head to the side when he realized that it was the boy from earlier. “’Hey’ to you, too.”

“I saw you standing there and thought you might like some company.” The boy smiled, his expression a little nervous yet oddly enough it only made him all the more attractive. “You seemed… alone. Where’s your girlfriend?”

“She’s not my girlfriend, she’s my sister.” Eren frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, his posture a little defensive at the question while his stomach twisted with some odd emotion. “She’s busy trading but she should be back soon.”

“Oh.” The boy’s smile strengthened and he stepped closer to Eren, his long, patched up dark coat swaying with his movement. “It’s just, you don’t look at all alike, so I assumed.” He reached out as if to touch Eren’s arm but stopped a few inches away. “I noticed you the last time you were here and wanted to approach you then.” He stared intently at Eren, his gaze not wavering from Eren’s face.

Was something wrong? Were his eyes glowing “I, uh, noticed you, too.” Did the boy suspect something?

“Good.” The boy smiled at Eren and stepped even closer, still staring at him. “Then do you want to go somewhere more private?”

Realization smashed into Eren and made the hunger he was feeling burn all the stronger. He was being hit on, wasn’t he? This was like some silly scene in a movie that his mother and Mikasa liked to watch. He wet his lips and noticed the way the boy stared at his mouth, caught sight of the racing pulse on the boy’s bare throat and the dilated pupils in those pale eyes. Yes, those were signs of desire, weren’t they?

He should probably say no, should go look for Mikasa but he found himself nodding, unable to fight his own feelings, that languid hunger that urged him on. The boy’s smile became wider as he slid his hand along Eren’s left arm until he could entwine their fingers and then led him further from the crowd of people, into a shadowed nook. “We won’t be seen here,” the boy whispered. “Just be quiet.”

“Oh-okay.” Eren wondered if he should say something, what he should do, but the boy appeared to be fine with taking control of the situation. He urged Eren to shed his oversized coat but nothing else and ran his fingers through the long bangs falling onto Eren’s face.

“Such beautiful eyes.” He placed a kiss on Eren’s forehead then urged him to turn around, to face the wall. “We need to be quick, before anyone notices.” His cool hands roamed along Eren’s neck, down his jersey-covered chest, pressed lightly against his stomach and then fumbled with the button on his jeans.

Staring at the peeling plaster of the wall in front of him, Eren realized that he was about to lose his virginity to someone whose name he didn’t even know in a quick fuck while standing in a half-destroyed church while surrounded by a bunch of strangers. Yet he wasn’t worried or ashamed, he wasn’t afraid, he just felt that new, delicious sense of hunger pulsing through his veins and demanding to be sated. He put his hands up against the wall, claws already out and digging into the plaster, and moaned when one of the boy’s hands slid into his open jeans to fondle his tumescent cock.

“Hmm, eager, are we,” the boy whispered in his ear. “Just give me a moment. I’ve been dying to fuck you since I saw you.” He pumped Eren’s cock a few more times, until it was fully erect and Eren was whining in need, then shoved his pants and underwear down past his knees. “Just give me a moment.”

The boy pulled away a little, leaving Eren to feel frustrated without that taller body pressing against him, and there was the sound of clothes rustling and a zipper being pulled down. Something popped open and there was the squishing of liquid being poured out and spread around, and then the boy was back, his slick fingers sliding between the cheeks of Eren’s bare ass.

He hissed as one of them sunk inside, claws tearing at the plaster as his body struggled to adjust to the intrusion. “Fuck, but you’re tight. Haven’t done this in a while, have you? You’re going to be so good,” the boy crooned as he shoved his finger in all the way and curled it around. Eren bit into his bottom lip and rode out the pain, the hunger building despite it, maybe even because of it, and groaned when another finger was added. Things became hazy as his body struggled to adjust, his mouth filled with the taste of his own blood, his mind battling conflicting instincts of fuck/fight and-

“Ah! Da-damn! Relax a little, pretty boy,” the boy stuttered out as he pushed inside of Eren, who clenched his eyes shut as pain washed through him. He struggled to breathe through it, struggled to adjust, and nearly howled when the boy reached from behind to wrap a slick hand around his softening cock and pumped it several times.

“Yeah, that’s it.” The boy chuckled when Eren jerked his hips in time with those maddening strokes along his cock. “Fuck yeah, that’s it.” He began to thrust faster into Eren as his other arm hitched up Eren’s left leg and lifted Eren onto the toes of his right foot so he could sink in deeper, faster. The change in position made something inside of Eren light up, made him choke out a cry and scratch at the wall while pleasure exploded inside of him. He felt as if he was consumed by fever, his body covered with sweat and shuddering, his nerves on fire and skin sensitive to every touch. More – he wanted more of it, more of that insane pleasure, more of the force, more-

The boy pressed his face against the back of Eren’s head and began to shiver, thrusts growing erratic as he cried out. His hips slammed hard into Eren a few more times and then he began to slow down, his motions languid, leaving Eren at that terrible peak where he felt as if he couldn’t breathe, could barely think.

“Oh, yeah. That was good. Let’s… let’s take care of this.” The hand around Eren’s cock resumed stroking, firm and fast, and Eren shivered, body overtaxed from too much sensation. A few more strokes and he felt as if something snapped inside of him, a huge burst of ecstasy as he came with a strangled cry.

The boy moved away while Eren was still spurting against the wall, provoking a wince from him as he pulled out. “You were great, pretty boy. Thanks. I, ah, I have to get back now. See you again soon?” He didn’t bother to wait for an answer, just rearranged his clothes and left.

Eren stood there for a few seconds, mind pleasantly dazed from his release and body spent. Then he shook himself to help clear his head and set about to make himself presentable, hobbling over to his coat to fetch the scrap of cloth he always carried in case he fed and needed to clean up any signs of blood. It would do to wipe away the semen and oil smeared between his thighs, at least for now. He noticed a trace of blood on the cloth as well and wondered if he should be worried before pushing the thought aside – if he and Mikasa could feed from Malform, heal missing limbs and drink tainted water without any issues, somehow he didn’t think sexual diseases were a problem.

Once more presentable, he slipped away from the nook and went outside, away from the people. He stood underneath the stars and took a deep breath, still feeling a sense of peace, a stillness that he hadn’t known for… well, a very long time.

Mikasa found him a short while later, a large pack on her back and another bag in her arms. She came to a stop about two feet away and hissed. “You reek of sex,” she accused, her voice sharp and yet oddly confused.

“Yeah, I know.” He gave her a small smile then resumed staring up at the stars.

“Are you telling me that you had sex with one of these people?” There was a thump as she threw the bag down. “Was it consensual? It better have been consensual or I’m killing the entire-“

“Mikasa, don’t.” He reached over to grab hold of her arms. “It was consensual.”

She stared at him in confusion for several seconds. “You wanted it,” she asked in a small voice, her eyes wide and glittering with tears. “Are you… are you lonely?”

“I think I was just horny.” He gave her a sad smile and pulled her in for a hug. “We should still be teenagers, more or less. Don’t you get horny sometimes?”

She hit him on the back hard enough to knock the breath out of him before returning the hug. “Idiot. Of course I do. It doesn’t mean I go off and fuck someone the moment your back is turned.”

“Well, maybe you should. Don’t let me stop you.” He stroked his hand over her hair. “Maybe we both need to do it more often.”

“Maybe.” She pulled away enough to look at him. “So you just decided to have sex?”

He shrugged while he fussed with her scarf, settling it better around her neck. “It’s more a case of someone who was cute propositioning me. I figured… why not? It worked out mostly well.”

Her eyes narrowed at the last part. “Define ‘mostly well’.” There was a hint of a threat in her voice – not for him, but clearly for his recent sex partner and probably everyone inside the church, too.

He supposed that he should be thankful that she was reacting better than he’d thought over the situation, even if she still was being over-protective. “’Mostly well’ in that I didn’t try to drain him dry during the act, and he didn’t notice anything odd about me. I did claw the shit out of the wall, though. You might want to keep your hands covered during your first time, and maybe your eyes hidden.” Though Mikasa did have better control than he did.

She still seemed ready to go back and beat the shit out of the poor kid. “Is that all? He treated you right?”

Eren sighed as he let go of his sister and bent over to fetch the dropped bag. “Honestly? It’s clear that he does this sort of thing often, hitting on visitors and counting on them to be gone shortly. The sex was… not bad. I assume it’ll get better. But considering what we are, I’m fine with the way things happened.” It wasn’t as if he could have a long-term relationship with the guy, or anyone else. Not unless he wanted to tell them the truth about himself and Mikasa. “Come on, let’s get going if we’re done here.”  
  
Mikasa made a hmph’ing sound as she stepped forward and snatched at his free hand, entwining their fingers together. “’Not bad’ isn’t acceptable. We’ll make sure the next guy is better. *You* deserve better.”

He couldn’t help it; Eren laughed as he tugged his sister closer and titled his head to touch hers. “You’re the best, you know that?” How many other siblings out there would be so determined to find their brother the best fuckbuddy possible?

A faint blush spread across her cheeks as she gave his head a gentle knock. “Never forget it.” She smiled, the expression sweet and pleased, the entire way back to their camp.

*******

Mikasa headed back to the small apartment, upset that she had spent most of the night looking for Thierry with nothing to show for all of her efforts. Perhaps Eren had more luck; his hunting instincts were sharper than hers and people responded better to his youthful, more emotional face as long as he kept his temper in check. 

Lost in her thoughts and depressed about the lack of success that night, it took until she had unlocked the door and entered the small living room to realize that something wasn’t right – she could smell Eren, but there were other, unknown, *exotic* scents as well. Struggling to control the urge to unleash her fangs, she tugged up her scarf the same time she scowled at the stranger sitting on the worn, scavenged couch. “Who are you?” 

“Ah, you must be Mikasa.” The petite blonde girl, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and torn jeans against the autumn chill, shrugged her shoulders. “I’m Annie.” She lifted what looked to be a bottle of wine that she held in her left hand in greeting. “Your brother has told us all about you.” From the way that she rolled her blue eyes, she gave the impression that she wasn’t all that impressed as of yet.  
  
“’Us’?” Mikasa closed and locked the door behind her then stepped further into the apartment. Now that the initial shock was over, she could make out the sounds from the bedroom, of bodies moving about on the bed she shared with her brother, skin sliding against skin, moans and whispers and- 

A furious blush spread across her cheeks. “Eren’s here with…?” She was going to *kill* him. He was supposed to be looking for Thierry! 

A slight, cruel grin uplifted the corners of Annie’s mouth when she lowered the bottle of wine. “Yeah, Bertolt and Reiner took a liking to him, your brother’s really cute. We came across him a short while ago at a bar a few blocks from here. Guess the guy he was looking for wasn’t there.” She shrugged and tilted her head to the side, seemingly unconcerned about what had brought Eren across her path. “The boys calmed him down when he got a little overzealous in trying to get some information out of the bartender, and one thing led to another.” 

Ah, that had probably been at Le Rêve, Mikasa surmised. Thierry had always liked the place, even if it didn’t live up to its name, being a bit of a dive. “Sorry, he can be a bit… impulsive at times.” 

“So I gathered.” There was another of those elusive, smug smiles. “I think that’s why the boys like him so much.” 

Why was Mikasa standing out here doing small-talk with a stranger? And a stranger who smelled different from everyone else, smelled… smelled *wild* and *strong* and oddly *comforting*.  She shifted from foot to foot and tried to figure out what to say, when more sounds drifted from the bedroom during the silence. 

“-d..damn, you won’t believe his... his mouth... oh god.” 

“Hah. Will… try it next…” 

Mikasa rushed to drop the bag she always carried with her unless she was hunting onto the floor, take off her coat and sit in the large padded chair next to the couch. “So Eren invited everyone back to the apartment. You’re… you’re fine just waiting out here while….” She couldn’t believe she had just asked that, her face blushing even brighter at the thought of what her brother was doing in the other room with two guys. *Two*. Granted, it had been a while, but two at the same time? She tugged the scarf up higher to try to hide her red face. 

Annie laughed, the sound low and a little mean, and offered Mikasa the wine bottle, which she accepted with a desperate thanks. “Normally I’d be in there with them.” She laughed some more when Mikasa coughed up the tiny bit of wine she’d just swallowed. “But your brother made perfectly it clear that he only prefers guys.” 

“Aren’t you… I mean, doesn’t that upset you?” Mikasa stared at the other girl while clutching the bottle to her chest. 

“No.” Annie shrugged while glancing over her shoulder at the bedroom door. “We’re rather open with our relationship, it keeps things interesting.” She looked back at Mikasa. “They’re free to pursue someone they want, just as I am, it doesn’t affect what we have for each other.” 

“Oh.” Mikasa took a long drink of wine to steady her nerves while she thought about that. She supposed it was similar to what she had with Eren, only without the sexual relationship between each other. They lived together, loved each other, couldn’t imagine being apart – they were each other’s lives and had no intention of ever changing that, they just sought sexual release with other people. “I think I get it.” 

“I thought you might.” For the first time since they’d met, there was a slight thawing in Annie’s aloof nature, a hint of genuineness in her slight smiles. “Which is another reason why I don’t mind that the guys are currently fucking your brother’s brains out right now.” 

“Gah. So don’t need that mental image.” Mikasa grimaced before she drained off the rest of the wine. “I’m grabbing another bottle. Do you want anything else,” she thought to offer as she went to the tiny kitchen. Eren had probably been too distracted to do so before… yeah, not thinking about that. It was a good thing that Eren cooked now and then as a reminder of better times, as their kitchen had a few ‘human’ staples other than several bottles of alcohol. 

“No thanks, we ate earlier.” 

Mikasa grabbed two bottles of wine, uncorked them and returned to the tiny living room, which was barely big enough to hold the second-hand padded chair, couch and table – they had just arrived a couple of weeks ago and weren’t planning on staying too long, so hadn’t bothered with anything too fancy. Annie accepted the wine bottle and didn’t have a problem drinking straight from it, leaving Mikasa flustered when she realized that she had forgotten glasses since she was so used to it just being her and Eren. Oh well, she knew she could handle a bottle with ease thanks to her nature, and Annie appeared to have a strong tolerance as well. 

“So, Eren said that you two are in town looking for this relative of yours?” Annie settled herself a little more comfortably at the end of the couch, her left leg tucked beneath her. 

Needing a drink, Mikasa paused before she answered to have a few swallows of the strong red wine. “Yes,” she answered once she was finished. “It’s a rather sad story – he’s gone a bit senile and left the care we set up for him, so we need to find him before something bad happens.” She didn’t want to think about Thierry right now, about how old he’d gotten, how bitter he’d become over how he continued to age and- No, not right now. She drank some more. 

“Yeah, Eren said much the same. He seems really worried about the old guy.” Annie spoke in a very bored tone of voice as she picked at the label of her wine bottle, clearly uninterested in some senile stranger. “We’ve been in town for the past month or two, just resting a while as we wander wherever the wind takes us, but we can ask around.” 

Mikasa wasn’t sure it was wise to involve strangers into this mess, especially since it was becoming clear that people finding out what she and Eren were only led to trouble. “That seems like a lot to ask.” 

Annie shrugged again. “It’s not a problem – like I said, the guys seem to really like your brother. It’ll give them an excuse to see him some more.” 

What could she say to that? It might raise suspicions if Mikasa pushed aside help when it was clear that they were desperate to find Thierry. Making a non-committal noise, she nodded once and drank some more wine, then changed the subject to where all Annie and her ‘guys’ had been in the recent years. They certainly were a well-traveled trio, moving around as much as Eren and Mikasa. Now that humanity has recovered to the point of establishing proto-cities in an effort to protect against the solar flares and Malform, they seemed to divide their time between living ‘civilized’ and out in the wild. There were certain benefits to both lifestyles. 

“What do you think about the rumors to build those domes,” Annie asked after a while. 

“Domes?” Mikasa tucked back the hair falling onto her face and leaned forward, her arms resting on the side of the chair. “You mean the city enclosure plans?”  
  
“Yeah, they’re calling them domes.” Annie snorted in derision and set her mostly empty bottle of wine aside on the table. “To build these big, bubble cities in hopes of keeping everyone safe.” 

It was a good thing that Eren wasn’t here, or he’d start ranting right about now. “Well, it would help with the solar flares, but it seems a good way to trap everyone inside should there be any new problems or a Malform attack,” Mikasa admitted. “I’m not sure it’s the best solution. It seems more like putting your head in the sand and hoping the problem goes away.” 

A spark of interest lit up Annie’s blue eyes. “And do you think-“ 

The sound of running water from the direction of the bedroom made Mikasa jump to her feet. “One moment.” She guessed that the ‘guys’ had finished with their ‘fun’ for the night and hurried to the kitchen, where a large bottle of previously boiled water sat out on the counter. She poured some of that into a large glass and went back to sit on the chair, the glass in hand. “I’m sorry, you were saying?” 

“Nothing important.” Annie leaned back against the couch, her expression once more guarded. “Just happy to see that someone has their own opinion about things, for once.” 

The bedroom door opened to admit Eren and two strangers, both taller and a couple of years older than him: one with broad shoulders, blond hair trimmed in a short cut and light brown, almost golden eyes, and another with brown hair, green eyes, tanned skin and a friendly visage. A slight blush spread across Eren’s face when he saw Mikasa and he tugged at the hem of the plain t-shirt he was wearing along with a pair of boxers while on his way over to her, curling up on the large chair together. 

She hummed in satisfaction at the feel of him being so close, even if he smelled of soap, fresh water, sweat, sex and two strangers. He mumbled thanks as he accepted the glass of water, thirsty as always after sex, and fit his almost feverishly warm body against hers, seeking the comfort and affection that he always denied his sexual partners after intercourse. She wrapped her right arm around his shoulders and stared out at the strangers who sat on the couch, her gaze possessive and almost defiant when they stared back in confusion and a bit of envy; Eren slept with whomever he wanted and it never bothered her, but *this* was hers alone, this true expression of closeness that was never allowed to one-night stands and fuckbuddies. 

The blond guy, muscles on display since he only wore a pair of jeans, scowled for a moment until Annie elbowed him in the ribs, while the other guy, dressed similar to Eren in boxers and a long-sleeved t-shirt, appeared of a shier nature since he ducked his head and blushed a little. Eren finished his drink and nudged Mikasa’s shoulder. “Mikasa, this is Reiner and Bertolt.” 

She bent her right arm around to comb her fingers through his tangled hair. “So I gathered. Annie was kind enough to tell me about her friends.” 

“Hmm.” Eren cradled the empty glass in his lap and snuggled closer. “You two been talking?” 

“There wasn’t much else to do while you were occupied,” she chided. 

That earned her a mumbled apology, while across the small room, the blond guy reached over to grab at Annie’s abandoned bottle of wine. “Uhm, yeah, sorry for the… odd introduction. I’m Reiner. It’s nice to meet you, we’ve heard a lot about you already.” His stern expression softened into an affection smile as he gazed at Eren. “Eren’s got nothing but good things to say about you.” The other young man, Bertolt, quickly echoed that sentiment. 

“He’s a great brother.” Mikasa tilted her head to rest it against Eren’s, almost perfectly content at the moment – she noticed that, as well as smelling of sex and her brother, these two also smelled the same exotic way that Annie did.  

“It’s a shame you two aren’t into teaming up in bed, because- ouch! It was only a suggestion, Annie! No need to hit me!” Reiner flinched when Annie punched him again in the ribs, dropping the thankfully empty wine bottle to the floor, while Mikasa grimaced at the idea of having sex with her own brother – even if there was someone else involved. Beside her, she could feel Eren shudder. 

Bertolt laughed and shook his head. “Eren had the same reaction when we suggested it before, you know.” He laughed a little more until Annie looked over a whining Reiner to glare at him, his expression quickly changing to one of fear. 

“You’re both idiots,” the small blonde girl spat out as she stood up. “Come on, we’re leaving before you insult them any further. Go gather your clothes.” As the two young men scurried to do as they’d been bid, Annie turned toward Mikasa and Eren and nodded once. “Thanks for the hospitality.”  
  
Mikasa pried herself away from Eren and forced herself to stand up. “You don’t have to go. You can wait a little closer to daylight if you want, til it’s safer.”  
  
Annie waved aside the suggestion. “No, it’s all right, we’re pretty good since we travel in numbers. We’ll be fine.” She picked up a dark blue coat that had been folded near the couch and pulled it on. “Thanks, though.”  
  
Her two friends came out a few seconds later, fully dressed and pulling on their coats. They both paused to give Eren a kiss goodbye and promised to see him soon, something that left Mikasa with mixed feelings – relationships were what had gotten them into this current mess. However, since it was *her* relationship with Thierry, she felt that it wasn’t her right to object. 

Eren closed and locked the door behind the trio and stood there for a moment. When he turned around, he offered Mikasa a shaky smile. “I’ll make up the bed and then wash off.”  
  
“All right. I’ll clean up here.” She paused before she started gathering up the wine bottles. “So no luck tonight? I mean, other than the obvious,” she said with more than a little sarcasm. 

Eren’s cheeks grew red at the slight taunt. “I didn’t see him at all, and no one admitted to him having been in town for the last few nights or so.” He took a couple of steps forward. “Then I ran into those three and there was something about them…. I’m sorry, Mikasa.” 

Dammit, where could Thierry have gone? All reports pointed to him having come here, so how could an elderly man vanish so permanently unless the Malform had gotten to him? But Thierry knew better than most how to avoid them…. 

“It’s okay, go get ready for bed,” she told her brother. Eren looked as if he wanted to say more, but did as he’d been told after a few seconds. 

******* 

Over the next few weeks, Mikasa and Eren continued to search for Thierry while spending their free time with the trio. Eren certainly enjoyed a set of enthusiastic lovers who didn’t seem to care for any emotional strings, while Mikasa found herself looking forward to the time alone with Annie, another female who shared some similar mindsets. It seemed that here was a possibility for a relationship that they could participate in as long as it lasted, probably until spring arrived or they found Thierry, whichever happened first, and then part their way as casual friends. Neither she nor Eren were making the mistake of revealing too much of their past or hoping for anything long-term, just living in the moment and grateful that they didn’t feel so alone for once. Annie appeared to be indicating that she wouldn’t mind something more from Mikasa, but Mikasa was leery to move past friendship while still stinging from Thierry’s apparent betrayal. Eren told her that she was being foolish, that she’d broken off things with the man decades ago, but it was difficult to start any type of new relationship when dealing with the fallout of an old one, in her opinion. No, it was best to keep things strictly platonic.

On the prowl one evening while Eren ‘hung out’ with Reiner and Bertolt, Mikasa tracked down the scent of a Malform until she trailed it into an abandoned building. The older ones scurried away once they caught a whiff of her scent, but this younger one attempted to stand its ground and was soon barreled over and given a swift, vicious kick to snap its neck. She didn’t waste any more time before she fed, tearing into its throat and savoring the feel of hot blood pouring into her mouth, filling her stomach – each swallow made her stronger, made her feel more alive- 

Her head snapped back, certain that she’d heard a sound, a floorboard creaking as if something had approached while she fed. Scouring the shadows around her, she didn’t see any signs of movement for over least a minute, nor did she smell anything but the Malform beneath her and rotting wood, fabric and the waste from vermin. Hesitating just for a moment, she continued her feeding from before until she couldn’t swallow another drop, then she used her strength to twist off the creature’s head. Leaving the building as quickly as possible, she kept searching her surroundings, a prickly feeling moving up and down her spine as if there was unwanted attention focused upon her. She didn’t feel at peace until both she and Eren were locked up safe in their apartment that night, and couldn’t shake the feeling of being followed while out hunting for days. Yet she never could find traces of anyone.

******* 

Mikasa sat on the couch and tried not to think of how Eren had just gone into the bedroom with Reiner and Bertolt, of what her brother would be doing for the next hour or two, while Annie was sitting so close to her. The blonde girl had her hair pulled up in a pretty bun and wore some sort of perfume that amplified her already exotic scent, the usual hoodie exchanged for an intricately crocheted sweater in a blue color that matched her eyes. 

“You don’t have to be so nervous.” There was that slight, sardonic smile on Annie’s face as she shifted even closer to Mikasa. “I won’t bite unless you want me to.” 

“I- what?” Mikasa wanted to move away, to put some space between them but she was already at the end of the couch. “I just- I didn’t get much sleep today. It’s making me tired.” That was at least partially true. 

“Ah, and here I thought that maybe I was finally having some sort of effect on you. Such a shame.” Annie shifted a little closer. “You know, those three don’t have to be the only ones enjoying themselves. We could be having fun, too.” 

Mikasa shook her head fast enough to make her hair fly about. “I don’t think that’s a wise decision.” She liked Annie, liked her more with each passing day, but she didn’t make sensible decisions when it came to relationships – look at Thierry. Either she was too aloof, just craving for some sort of sexual release or she cared too much, hoping for a fraction of what she shared with Eren or what her real parents had found together, and both usually ended up badly. “I think we’re fine just as friends.” 

That declaration earned her a derisive snort from Annie, and before she knew it, the smaller girl was straddling her lap, jean-clad, muscular thighs on either side of hers and long, strong arms wrapped around her neck. “*I* think we could be even better as friends with benefits. You deny yourself too much, Mikasa. Learn to let go.” As if to prove her point, Annie leaned forward, eyes heavy-lidded and lips parted, and kissed her. 

Annie’s scent became intoxicating, her taste… her taste heady and something that Mikasa instantly began to crave. She kissed back, tongue delving inside Annie’s mouth while a moan escaped her, hands lifting to clutch at Annie’s shoulders. She felt the other girl’s lips curl against her own and warm hands slide beneath the sweatshirt she was wearing. The feel of smooth skin against her own startled a gasp from her and made her break off the kiss. 

“I- I don’t think-“ 

There was a low, guttural snarl as Annie pulled back. “That’s your problem, you *think* too much instead of being true to yourself. You go through the motions day after day, pretending to be this weak creature, denying what you truly are, when you can be so much more.” A spark of red began to show in her blue eyes. “You and Eren are both so much more. We can show you that, teach you what you’re meant to be and take away the masks. But you, you and *Eren* need to-“ 

Why was she talking about Eren right now? Why was there a possessive growl to her voice whenever she spoke about Mikasa’s brother? A warning sense – a hint of danger, of trouble - grew in Mikasa as she stared up at Annie, at the red in her eyes, and she used all of her strength to throw the other girl off of her. “Get away!” To her shock, Annie twisted in mid-air and landed in a crouch as if a cat, her eyes now glowing red and her mouth full of fangs. 

“I tried to do this the nice way, I did. Now just come along and it’ll be all right.” 

No – Mikasa didn’t know what Annie was, but she wasn’t going to listen. She needed to get Eren- Eren, who was in the other room with Annie’s friends - Annie, who was some sort of monster. Letting the panic build inside of her, panic and anger, she poured all of it out in her voice, well aware of what it would do to her brother. “*Eren*! Help me!” While she shouted, she charged at Annie, letting loose her own fangs and claws. 

The outburst seemed to stun the other girl, as did the immediate sounds of snarls, yelps and yelling from the bedroom. Mikasa took advantage of that to lash out with her claws, swiping them across Annie’s face. The girl swore and barely dodged in time to avoid being blinded, then attempted to knock Mikasa off of her feet with a low sweep of her right foot. 

“Just give in, I’m much older than you!” 

“Go to hell,” Mikasa growled out and drove her left shoulder into the bitch’s stomach, knocking her into a wall. Annie yowled and dug her claws into Mikasa’s back as she pulled away, but it was worth it to know she’d broken a couple of ribs with that impact. 

“There’s three of us, we’ll-“ Annie stared in shock as Eren burst out of the bedroom, wearing only his boxers and the pouch necklace, covered in blood with eyes blazing gold and fangs bared. There appeared to be no sign of intelligence left to him, only a ferocious savagery that was intent on destroying everything between him and Mikasa. In the bedroom behind him, Reiner could be heard pleading loudly with Bertolt to heal, to drink his blood, to hold on. 

Eren sniffed the air several times and seemed to finally notice Annie, his head swiveling in her direction. He dashed forward and almost had the swearing blonde within reach when Mikasa snatched at his arm and swung him around. “No, not now! There’s no time!” She was yowled and snapped at for her troubles, but Eren never hurt her when he was like this, his humanity subsumed by the need to protect his only family. She dragged him toward the door, pausing only to grab her bag, in a desperate need to escape before something else happened. If those three were here for Eren, where there others?

“You can’t run away very far! Daylight will come soon!” Annie screamed after them, her breath catching in pain. Mikasa didn’t stop to respond, she kept going for the nearest exit despite the gasps and cries they attracted from the people they passed because of Eren’s appearance. They kept running until they were out on the street, down past the weak street lamps until they came to a dark, deserted section of town. 

“Mi-mikasa?” Eren tugged at Mikasa’s hold on his arm and stumbled. “Wha-what happened? Are you alright?” He came to a stop and shivered, not from the cold despite the fact that he was mostly undressed, but probably from shock. 

Mikasa reached into her bag to pull out a packet of disposable wipes and made a soothing sound when Eren flinched at the smell. “I know, bear with it,” she crooned and began to wipe away the blood covering his face. “I… I don’t think Annie and the others were human. They wanted something from us. She tried to attack me and that’s when I… well, I panicked.”  
  
Eren waited until his face was mostly clean and then nodded. “Yeah, Reiner grew fangs when I struggled to get away. Then….” His eyes grew unfocused. “I think I hurt Bertolt.” He never remembered things clearly when he lost control like that, which was why Mikasa did her best to never trigger the reaction – even in childhood, he could become so ferocious if he felt he was protecting something, but since the change, his instinctual, bestial side took over now and then. Since the worst of it happened when he was protecting Mikasa, it never bothered her. 

“It’s all right, you did it for me,” she told him, her right hand cupping his cheek while she smiled. After a moment, he managed to smile back, the expression uncertain at first. “Now stay here, I’m going to get you some clothes.” She wrinkled her nose. “It won’t look good, us leaving town with you half-naked.” 

A slight blush crept over his face. “Uhm, yeah, be thankful we didn’t get too far.” He hung his head forward, his long bangs falling to cover his face. “What are we going to do? What were they?”

Those were good questions, but she refused to think about them right now. “Use the wipes to finish cleaning up,” she ordered before she left, wringing a whine from him in complaint. Once out on the street, she stuck to the shadows while searching for suitable prey, this time human; she just needed someone of similar height to Eren and who was alone, which she found after almost twenty minutes. Feeling guilty about knocking out and robbing the poor soul, she put her speed to use to grab him, shove him into the nearest wall and punch him in the head until he was unconscious. Well aware that he’d be dead if a Malform found him, she forced herself to strip the middle-aged man of all of his possessions save his underwear and hurried back to where she’d left Eren. There was no telling how long it would take the trio to heal – the only thing in their favor was that the sun would rise in less than ten minutes.

“Here, hurry up and get dressed.” She shoved the clothes at her brother, grateful that he had used all the wipes to clean himself. Eren frowned at the clothes and shoes, which were still a bit too large, but dressed without complaint, handing over the man’s wallet to her. Mikasa checked and found a few credits inside, which she added to the ones she carried. They’d need to buy new supplies once they reached a town where they felt safe enough. 

As soon as Eren was dressed, she held his hand and began to run, heading toward the outskirts of town. It would look odd, two shapes leaving town, but with the sun rising, few people would want to follow them and risk exposure. The two of them would be fine – they would heal from any damage the solar radiation inflicted upon them as long as they fed often enough. If they ran most of the day and the next, they would reach a cave where they kept some supplies stored in case of an emergency, enough to hold them over for a few weeks.  
  
Eren squeezed her hand and kept pace beside her, silent as a shadow. Mikasa held on tight, afraid he would slip away at any moment. She didn’t know what Annie and the others were or why they wanted Eren so badly, but she wasn’t going to let them harm her brother. She’d kill anyone who tried to take Eren away from her. 

*******

Annie followed Pedro down the long, narrow path carved in stone, the smooth walls dimly lit by sparsely spaced lights that flickered with the pulse from the generator. Reiner and Bertolt walked behind her, and judging from the shuffling of their feet, their heavy footsteps, they were just as nervous as she was to meet with the others. It wasn’t a good thing, to be returning empty-handed… 

It felt as if they were walking forever, sinking deeper into the earth, when eventually they reached the large cavern a few minutes later where several others were gathered. Annie stifled a gasp when she realized that the *Elder* was present, his squat, furry body mostly covered in the rough brown cloak he wore, the hood pushed back to reveal his simian face. “Such a simple task, and you failed it,” he said in way of a greeting, his deep voice raspy and guttural, the words barely understandable as they were forced through a throat that wasn’t meant for human speech except he’d had *years* to master the ability, years and a burning determination. “Bring back the two neophytes so we could finally learn who made the boy and know how he turned the girl.” 

Reiner, always the impulsive one, rushed forward before Annie could gather her scattered wits and figure out the best approach in face of such censure. “You don’t understand - that Eren, he’s some sort of monster! He’s as bad as a Mutate! He nearly tore Bertolt apa-“ 

“Quiet!” Annie hissed at her partner when she noticed how the Elder’s eyes began to glow red. “Let me talk!” she ordered, her own eyes glowing and her fangs peeking past her top lip. Bertolt hurried forward to grasp Reiner’s right arm and whisper in his ear, to tell him that he was fine now, that Annie would handle things for them. Reiner scowled for a moment, all bluster on the surface yet his hands trembled as he shoved them into the pockets of his jeans. 

Sparing the two a harsh look for a few seconds, Annie did her best to compose her features before she turned back to face the Elder and the other vampires arranged behind him, recognizing a couple of them – all of them amongst the oldest of their species. Was this a tribunal? Were they in that much trouble? Why were two neophytes worth this much effort?

She kept her expression as dispassionate as possible when she began to speak, allowing none of her thoughts to show. “We went to New Paris as instructed and found the neophytes – Eren and Mikasa. They were tracking down someone they claimed was a relative, a Thierry Meyette, information which we passed on to our superior, Zeki, as quickly as we could since it seemed important. After doing so, we established contact with the two and worked to build a rapport since we’d hoped it would make the extraction easier.” She rubbed her left side, over the ribs that Mikasa had broken, while reciting the recent events in as even and respectful a tone that she could manage. “During that period, we determined that they possess an extremely close bond which can be useful in controlling them and are in fact feeding on Mutates. We never witnessed them feeding on humans.” The elder vampires shifted about, whispering at the news, and the Elder’s round eyes narrowed. “It’s clear that they don’t really know what they are.” 

She took a deep breath and moved on to explain what went wrong, hoping that it wouldn’t be used against them. “When I attempted to deepen the relationship with Mikasa in order to assist in bringing them both here… for some reason the girl panicked. She screamed for help, which set off the boy. He became… unusually savage.” She paused as she recalled the night, swaying for a moment at the memory of the blood, the sight of Bertolt’s torn flesh. ” I’ve never seen anything like it before. He attacked Bertolt and Reiner and would have fought me, but he didn’t touch Mikasa. They were able to escape, and as it was right before daylight, we lost track of them.” She finally allowed the frustration she felt to show in her expression and her voice. “Even after we healed, we couldn’t find them. They had few supplies – they shouldn’t have been able to go very far yet they vanished. Once we were certain we lost them, we returned.” 

The Elder stared at her, his eyes glowing that awful deep, bright red and his fangs so thick and sharp in his large, crude mouth. She feared for herself just then, herself as well as Reiner and Bertolt, and flinched when the Elder raised his hairy, disproportionally long right arm. “Zeki, fetch the human.” 

One of the cloaked figures behind him, the small, slender man with his dark brown hair pulled back in a long braid, bowed and left the chamber. “You did one thing right,” the Elder told them. “You sent that message to Zeki. You might have lost the neophytes, but he managed to find the prize they were searching for.” 

Zeki returned, half-dragging, half-carrying a babbling old man into the large chamber. Annie flinched again, this time from the smell of decay and madness that the human radiated. He was dressed in a simple robe – it appeared that someone had taken the time to clean him and wash his grey hair as if he was a pet. He cried out and pulled at Zeki’s grip when he spotted Annie, and then cried out again, in disappointment. “Not Mikasa, not my pretty Mikasa. Thought you said you’d bring my pretty Mikasa,” the old man mumbled, tears streaming down his wrinkled face. 

This was the ‘uncle’ that Mikasa and Eren had been searching for? Annie exchanged a confused look with Bertolt and nearly missed seeing the Elder gesture again toward Zeki. 

The graceful vampire bent down to lean over the sobbing human, who was now sitting hunched on the ground. “Tell us about your pretty Mikasa, Thierry. This young lady is a friend of hers.”  
  
Watery, cloudy eyes looked Annie’s way. “You know my Mikasa? Pretty, isn’t she? So cold and perfect.” 

Annie forced a swallow past her dry throat and nodded, a fake smile pasted on her lips. “Yes, I’m good friends with her – her and Eren.” What did this have to do with anything? But if it kept the Elder from being angry with them….

The old man drew back, his wrinkled features drawn in a scowl. “Eren! Ah, not Eren! Damn that boy! He took my pretty Mikasa away, took her into the sun where I couldn’t follow!” He started sobbing. “Said I couldn’t survive out there, she did. Said Eren needed the wild, needed away from people, so outside they went. Pretty Mikasa, always young, always strong.” He hunched over, his body wracked with sobs. 

‘Into the sun’. The words reverberated inside Annie’s head as she first stared at the wreck of a man, then looked up at Reiner and Bertolt, at the shocked expressions on their faces. She whirled around to face the Elder. “He can’t- it’s senility, right? He can’t be serious! None of us can go out into the sun!” 

“It would explain how they managed to escape you, would it not?” The Elder waddled in a circle around the sobbing old man. “How it’s taken so much effort to track them down, how they survive so long in the wild, only occasionally venturing into the newly forming towns.” 

Reiner pushed forward again, taking advantage of Annie’s confusion, of her trying to wrap her mind around the concepts of *vampires* who could survive the sun – not only sunlight, but this newer, more potent version. “But how, sir? What makes them able to survive this when not even you can?” 

The Elder produced a parody of a smile and motioned once more to Zeki, who leaned toward the old man once again. “Thierry, tell us more about that damn ‘Eren’ who took away your precious Mikasa. Tell us his name.” It took a little prodding, but after a few seconds, the old man uncurled enough to sit up, wiped his wet face on the sleeve of his robe and seemed to glare up at Zeki. 

“Jaeger. Eren Jaeger took her away. Curse him every day, I do. Just want my pretty Mikasa back.” He clutched at Zeki’s robe. “You promised, right? Make me strong like her, yes? Strong like my pretty Mikasa.” 

Zeki glanced at the Elder, who gave him a curt nod. The vampire picked up the old man and carried him away, while Annie once more stared in shock at the Elder. “Jaeger?” Was that why Eren and Mikasa had never shared their last name? They truly had been siblings – Grisha Jaeger had a son and an adopted daughter. Why hadn’t Annie made that connection? Behind her, Reiner cursed under his breath while Bertolt groaned deep in his throat, probably at how *damn* *close* they had been to something so… so… so *fucking* *important*. 

“Jaeger,” the Elder agreed. “Grisha Jaeger’s son. You know how close the man came to a cure – perhaps much closer than we ever suspected.” He hobbled toward Annie. “And now his son and daughter are out there, seemingly immortal, seemingly thriving on blood, seemingly able to turn others, and *seemingly able to survive in the sun*,” he shouted. Everyone, even the older vampires, cringed at the sign of his anger. He took a deep breath before he continued. “I want them. I want them found, and I want them brought to me, alive and well.” He made sure to stare pointedly at Reiner when he spoke that last part. 

“We’ll do it,” Annie promised. She’d failed once, she wouldn’t do so again. 

“Uhm, sir?” Bertolt surprised her by stepping forward, until he stood by her side. “I just remembered something when you mentioned Grisha Jaeger.” He rubbed at the back of his head as if nervous, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks. “Eren… well, we got to know him rather well the last few weeks.” His blush deepened, making his green eyes stand out even more. “The thing is, he always wore this little bag around his neck, even when we were… well, he never took it off.” 

“Yes?” The Elder gazed at Bertolt, his face slack but eyes intent. Annie took that as a good sign. 

Bertolt ducked his head and shuffled his feet. “What I mean is, he didn’t like talking about it, the bag. Just said that it was important, that it held some memories of his parents.” Ah, that made the Elder’s eyes glow a bit brighter, and Annie wanted to smack Bertolt and Reiner for never mentioning this to her before – then she remembered feeling something similar, that last night with Mikasa. “He didn’t like us playing with it, but the one time… I thought I felt a ring inside, maybe a few tiny stones, and what felt to be a small key.” 

“Yeah, there was definitely something like a key in there!” Reiner took several lunging steps forward. “It’s like Bert said – he was all touchy about the thing and never took it off. Not even when he bathed.” 

The Elder rumbled in approval. “Perhaps you didn’t mess up as badly as I thought after all.” He nodded several times, as if excited. “We need the boy *and* that bag. Grisha Jaeger was rumored to have had some secret research he was working on before he vanished, the boy may very well be it. He is our main priority from now on.” He watched as everyone bowed their heads in acknowledgement before turning around, his steps an inelegant waddle as he left the room. 

Annie faced Reiner and Bertolt and was certain that her expression matched theirs – a fierce determination to be the ones to bring in Eren and Mikasa, to not let anyone else claim the siblings. *They* would be the ones to save their race, to ensure their survival, and to make up for their mistake. If it felt a bit like payback for the shame of being bested then all the better, but it was also personal now for them. Eren and Mikasa needed to learn that they were no longer human and where their true priorities lay. Annie would force that lesson down their throats if she had to, one way or another.

*******

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, well, hopefully that made sense and wasn't too awful. And didn't feel like much of a letdown that the first explicit scene was with an OC. Also, try not to hate the OC too much. Intent wasn't to have him be a total asshole - he is, a little (really, just a tiny bit), but if you put him in the context of the situation - a world where people are dying left and right, where life expectancy has plummeted drastically and yeah, you fully don't count on seeing people you know again let alone strangers if they go wandering off - then the 'boy's actions aren't too surprising, trying to enjoy a hook-up while he can. And Eren didn't speak up to correct his misconceptions. Eren's not much better himself - if you're not in his inner circle, forget it. We're going to see how Eren can be a bit callous and narrowly focused play out in his relationships.


	12. C'mon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, as the title insinuates, things are starting to take a hopeful turn in this chapter. Which is ironic, because... well, see end note. But still, that doesn't negate what starts to get rolling in this chapter. Which is good....
> 
> Much thanks for the wonderful comments in the last post! So much appreciated!

*******

Eren hurried after Levi and Erd as they headed toward the conference room that Commander Smith had ordered them to attend, a sinking feeling in his stomach. What nasty surprise was about to be sprung on him this time?  
  
Levi seemed to be reading his mind, as he shot a narrowed look over his right shoulder. “How many more ‘friends’ do you have lurking around this dome, brat?” 

“Before Ymir showed up, I wouldn’t have said any at all,” Eren admitted, his brows drawn together as he struggled to answer in as respectful a manner as possible. “It’s not like we’re in a habit of befriending a lot of people, *Sir*.” 

“Yeah, that explains your sister’s wonderful personality.” Levi clicked his tongue as he focused his attention on what was in front of him. “Still, if I find someone else with your… feeding disability waiting for us, your head is going to become reacquainted with my foot.” 

Eren sighed as he trailed after the sadistic bastard, wondering when he had become so masochistic that he found being in the man’s company somewhat comforting. “I know, I know, it’s been over twenty-four hours and you’re going through withdrawals, not being able to beat me up. Life is just *so hard* for you, Captain Napoleon. Sir.” 

Levi’s quick pace stuttered for a moment, as if he debated turning around and kicking Eren’s ass then and there, and Erd made a coughing sound as if choking back a laugh. 

“I’ll be certain to clear my agenda after this meeting.” Levi’s deep voice sounded particularly dark and threatening just then, and Eren had no one but himself to blame. Ah well, healing factor and all that. At least he could take some satisfaction in the fact he knew how to press the short bastard’s buttons – and that he was taller than someone, for once. Maybe he should point that out while Levi was wailing on him…. 

They arrived at the conference room before Eren’s mouth could get him into any more trouble, only for Eren to realize that it was the same one from the other day; a sense of déjà vu washed over him, not helping to dissipate the negative feeling that made him want to turn around and run far away, to avoid whatever was waiting for them inside. Having Ymir in his life was bad enough, as was seeing Bertolt the other day. Eren’s mother had always said that things came in threes, so what was this latest bit of bad news? 

“Oi, brat, get your ass in here,” Levi snapped at him, standing on the other side of the door with an exceedingly annoyed look on his face. 

Sighing again, Eren rubbed at his eyes as if he could wash away the ill feeling inside of him and did as he’d been bid. He felt some relief upon seeing only familiar faces inside – Mikasa, Commander Smith and Captain Hange – but it was tempered by the fact that Ymir and Captain Zacharius was there as well. The weird blond guy with the overlong bangs and scruffy beard made Eren nervous with the way he was always sniffing at him, while Ymir… well, somehow, he doubted that it was a good sign, her being here, especially since Krista wasn’t present. 

“What’s so important that you had to drag us back here,” Levi demanded to know, his arms folded over his chest while he glared at the commander; there were times when Eren doubted that the man knew he was supposedly a lower rank than Smith. “You forget how to take a shit or something?” 

Commander Smith appeared as if he might be suffering from a headache, with the way his brows were drawn together and his smile was tight. “No, I just felt that this recent discovery might deserve the attention of my most important Captains.” He glanced at Erd, who was hovering at Levi’s left side. “This might be best reserved to the higher levels for now.” 

Levi arched an eyebrow at the news, his grey eyes lingering on Mikasa and Ymir before he nodded at Erd. “Gather the reports on the rest of the squadron for me,” he told the reserved man, who gave him a curt nod before leaving the room. If Erd was upset at being dismissed while Eren, Mikasa and Ymir stayed behind, Eren didn’t notice any sign of it; the tall blond gave him what appeared to be a reassuring smile before leaving the room. 

Wondering if he could get away with sitting down during whatever would take place next, Eren eyed the rows of padded chairs with remorse and decided to stand along with everyone else. Levi must have noticed his wandering attention as the sadist snatched at his left wrist and tugged him forward, to stand beside him. That left everyone in a semi-circle around Commander Smith, who gave them a once-over to ensure that he had their attention. 

“Now then, I believe that Mikasa has some important information she has to share with the rest of us.” He motioned for Mikasa to step forward. 

Not expecting the focus to be switched to his sister, who had been standing there with her head lowered so that her black hair covered most of her face, Eren frowned in concern as he stared at Mikasa. She glanced at him, her eyes flashing gold for a moment, before she looked away. He took a step in her direction, worried about whatever had upset her, only to be checked by the hold on his wrist. Levi’s level stare met his own heated gaze when he turned back at the man, and the tightening of the grip around his wrist forced him to settle down. 

Mikasa pushed aside her long bangs as she looked up, her eyes flashing once more as they settled on Levi. “Captain Hange and I met with the Engineers to assist with their investigation into the use of the sewer system by the Malform in their most recent attack. During that meeting...,” she glanced once more at Eren while she paused in her explanation, “we were approached by a pair of MPs, one of whom I recognized.” She paused again to take a deep breath, as if hoping to calm herself. “The woman is a vampire.” 

As soon as Mikasa said ‘woman’ and ‘vampire’, Eren tensed up, his eyesight washing out to grey and his fangs pushing free. Levi’s grip tightened once again, along with a hissed ‘brat’ reminding him to control himself.  A few feet away, he could hear Ymir curse beneath her breath. 

“I’m going to assume that the two of you might know who this person is, whom Mikasa is alluding to, yes?” Commander Smith folded his arms over his impressive chest and fixed them both with a very pointed stare. 

“There’s been… well, there’s this one vampire in particular who’s determined to find us,” Eren explained, his attention fixed on Mikasa. When she gave him an infinitesimal nod in return, he knew that she was talking about Annie – which made sense, considering that he’d seen Bertolt yesterday. 

Ymir scoffed as she began to pace around in small circles, flinching away when she came too close to Captain Zacharius. “Yeah, and she’s a real peach, I can tell you that much. Like a dog with a bone, she is with you two.” 

Levi gave Eren’s wrist another warning squeeze before releasing it. “Are you telling me that there’s a fucking vampire in the MP?” His voice had taken on a deadly quietness and his eyes had narrowed while he stared intently at Mikasa. 

She met his gaze with a coldness that showed how she refused to be cowed by a mere human, her face an impassive mask that Eren recognized well after all this time. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” She glanced once more at Eren. “It gets worse – she always travels with two companions. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect that they would also be MPs, especially since Eren saw one of them at the park yesterday.” 

Eren could almost count down the seconds until the point where Levi’s temper exploded, he was getting that good at gaging the man’s emotions; it was about the tensing of muscles in those narrow shoulders, the way those elegant hands clenched, the throbbing of a vein beneath a shadowed, steel grey eye. “You shitty, good for nothing *brat*!” Levi spat out the insult as he whirled around and grabbed at Eren’s jacket to yank him in close. “You knew about this and didn’t tell me?” 

“Hey! I knew about Bertolt but didn’t have a fucking clue about the MP thing!” Eren shouted back as he pried at the hands that were shaking him back and forth, while across the room Captain Hange and Ymir struggled to contain Mikasa. “And I told you about Bertolt.” 

“You told me that there’d been a shitty vampire at the park, not that you knew him!” Levi gave him one more violent shake before letting go. “Why the hell is that?” 

Commander Smith’s deep voice cut through the room before Eren could even try to answer the question. “Yes, why indeed is that?” He stepped closer, in front of a furious Mikasa, and looked back and forth between Eren and Ymir. “How do you know these vampires, Eren, and did you, Ymir, know about them before you came here?” Beside the tall man, Captain Zacharius stood at attention, his chin raised as he took a slow sniff of the air. 

Not liking the piercing stare directed his way, Eren fussed with his hair, running his fingers through the strands as he tucked them back from his face until he felt his left foot get kicked. “Dammit,” he hissed at Levi, picking up on the ‘subtle’ hint to stop stalling for time. “We’ve known the trio for a long time – that’s Annie, Bertolt and Reiner,” he explained in a rush when it looked as if Levi was going to kick him again. “They were the first vampires we realized that we came across, and yeah, it’s like Ymir said, they’re pretty determined to track us down.” For a moment he thought back to when they first met, to how well they’d all gotten along. Reiner and Bert had made him feel so good, had gone out of their way to prove that he could just be himself with them, to enjoy the moment… he should have known that it was too good to be true. 

“And why is that?” 

Internally, Eren cringed at the frostiness in Commander Smith’s voice and shifted a little closer to Levi, his fingers curled inward to hide the fact that his claws were beginning to unfurl. “Because somehow they found out about Mikasa and me – look, we told you about this,” he snapped. “We told you that those bastards were after us – do we have to give you a detailed list of how exactly they’ve hounded us over the centuries?” He took a step forward, his claws digging into the palm of his hands, through the leather of his gloves. “You won’t live long enough to listen to all of it, *old man*,” Eren taunted as the world washed into grey. “You don’t know what it’s like, to constantly be chased, to keep walking away from the little bit of home you’ve found, to see your sister’s heart constantly be broken or to be betrayed by people you thought you could trust. To have this happen *year* after *year* for so fucking long you can’t imagine a life without it.” He stalked closer to Smith, his fangs bared and eager to tear into flesh. “No, you live your pathetic little lives just waiting for those mewling Malform to rip out-“ 

A harsh slap knocked his head to side and put an end to the vicious tirade, leaving his left cheek stinging and an odd sense of calm flowing through him. “Enough, Eren,” Mikasa told him, her voice quiet and her eyes shining with a rare understanding. “It’s not their fault.” 

“Yeah… I… yeah.” He lifted his hands and forced the claws to unclench, to unbury from his flesh. Steam rose from the wounds, and an excited cry burst forth as Captain Hange rushed forward and literally shoved Mikasa aside.  

“Amazing! Is that steam? How is that possible? Does this always happen? Oh! They’re already healed! Dammit, I wish I’d recorded this,” she babbled as she twisted Eren’s now-healed hands back and forth. “I really need to get you into the labs and-“ 

She cried out again when Levi elbowed her in the ribs to force her aside. “Shut it, Shitty Glasses. We’re in the middle of something here.” He glared at her until she pouted and went back to stand beside Ymir, then took hold of Eren’s left arm in a punishing grip. “As for you, start something like that again and I’ll break your fucking jaw. We all got our issues, we just don’t go about vomiting them up.” 

Oh really? Eren was about to make a scathing retort about that remark, but one warning look from Mikasa had him sighing instead. As it was, Ymir couldn’t hold back a derisive snort. 

“Yeah, right, Napoleon. You’re the master of well-adjustment for all to see and worship.” She rolled her eyes while making a jerking motion with her right hand. “So mature that I-“ 

Commander Smith threw up his left hand to stop Levi from stomping forward to do some ‘ass-kicking’ and stared down his impressive nose at Ymir. “We haven’t heard from you yet on just how you know these vampires.” That wiped the smug look off of her freckled face. 

She drew herself up to her full height, which still fell short of the commander’s, and tried for a nonchalant look while she hooked her thumbs into the grey leather belt of her uniform. “Of course I know the three assholes – it’s impossible not to once you cross paths with Rebel and Sunshine. Plus, they’ve come sniffing after me a time or two, but I’ve got a couple more centuries experience hiding than the Wonder Twins over there.” She jerked her chin in Mikasa’s direction while Commander Smith’s brow furrowed at the ancient reference. “Now, if you’re asking did I know if they were in the dome? Yes, I suspected once I got here and noticed the Malform acting so weird.” She lost some of her aloof air and hunched her shoulders forward. “It takes a lot of effort to control them in a dome this big, so that would require a few vampires at least. Those three work together very well and are strong – it made sense that it was them if Eren was here as well, since he’s their main target.” She forced her back straight once again and looked the commander right in the eye. “But did I know they were in the MP? Hell no. That takes more balls than I’d give them credit for, because of the ID checks and everything.” 

The room was quiet for a moment after her confession, then Commander Smith nodded, as if to himself. “I see. So you came to us not only because of wanting something from Eren, but because you knew three powerful enemies were inside the dome.”  
  
Ymir didn’t appear pleased with his evaluation of the situation, but she wasn’t one to shy away from the truth once confronted. “Yeah, that’s basically it. Their main goal may be Eren and Mikasa, but I know they’d be only too happy to drag my gutted corpse back with them as well.” Eren knew that they’d kill Krista before they did that, both to punish Ymir and to silence a witness. 

There was more of the strained quiet before the commander nodded again. “So we know where you stand.” He took a step back as if he wanted to better see everyone. “Now, we’re left with the issue of vampires in the MP. As Ymir just remarked, I find it difficult to believe that they could so easily infiltrate the organization.” He glanced back and forth between Eren and Mikasa. “What are the skills of this threesome?” 

That question made Ymir snigger, a sound she did a poor job of stifling with the back of her right hand. “Excuse me, did I say something amusing?” Commander Smith asked while Eren grinded his teeth together and Mikasa glared at Ymir, a hint of gold in her dark eyes. 

“Oh no, nothing at all.” Ymir waved her hand at the Commander, a very wide grin on her face. 

The look he gave her just then was rather dubious, yet he cleared his throat to continue. “Now then, we need to know what exactly the threesome-“ 

“Ha! Hahahahahahahaha!” Ymir clutched at her sides and doubled over, tears sparkling at the corners of her tightly closed eyes. “The-thre-three-haaa!” 

That was it – Eren lunged at the laughing bitch, determined to rip out her throat, only to find the weird sniffing guy standing in his way. He pulled up short, for a second debating if he should shove him out of the way or tear right through him, and then snarled as he was yanked back by the collar of his jacket. Dammit! 

Levi’s brows were drawn together over his cold grey eyes as he once more hauled Eren in close. “Listen you little shit, calm the fuck down.” He gave Eren’s collar a shake to emphasis his point before he turned his ferocious glare Ymir’s way. “As for you, fucking behave for once – what are you, two years old? What’s so funny about the word ‘threeso…” Something seemed to occur to him just then, and his head slowly turned in Eren’s direction. For some reason, the scrutiny of those grey eyes made a hot blush spread across Eren’s face even as he met the look straight on.  “*You*,” Levi said with another shake for emphasis, “and I are having another discussion later,” he ordered before he released his hold on Eren’s jacket. 

Across the room, Commander Smith stood there with a puzzled expression on his face while Captain Hange was cackling something about ‘definitely doing that study’ and was busy writing something down in her notepad, and Captain Zacharius merely shook his head. Mikasa went over to Ymir to smack her hard on the left shoulder, and for once the vampire just accepted the blow with a muttered ‘sorry’. 

This was his life now? Eren tugged on his hair and wondered if it wasn’t too late to just run for the hills and not talk to another soul besides Mikasa for several centuries – at least Armin wasn’t here to witness this and tease him for the next few years. “Can we *please* get back to the important topic, and that’s the *trio*?” 

“Yes, the damn *trio*,” Levi reiterated. “And what you… know about them.” For some reason, the expression on his face just then was exceedingly virulent. “In a *tactical* sense.” 

“Oh, I bet it can be ‘tactical’ as hell,” Captain Hange crooned as she continued to scribble down notes. “It’s just been too long for you, Sweetie.” This time it was Eren’s turn to hold back a furious Levi. 

“And we wonder why we haven’t been able to defeat the Malforms yet,” Commander Smith muttered while pinching the bridge of his nose, a rather disgusted look on his face at the moment. 

Beside him, Captain Zacharius took a sniff another sniff of the air while eyeing Levi and Eren. “I’m smelling a lot of se-“ 

“I don’t particularly want to know that right now,” the commander snapped before turning toward Levi and Eren. “Get yourself under control,” he ordered Levi, who had a rather murderous look on his face as he continued to scowl in Captain Hange’s direction. “The rest of you will act like the mature adults you’re supposed to be. And anyone with the ability to produce fangs will answer questions, or *else*.” A rather scary look overcame his handsome features, to the point where Eren found himself scooting behind Levi for protection on pure instinct. Even Mikasa appeared cowed for a few seconds and crept over to stand by his side. 

Then Commander Smith took a deep breath, as if to calm himself. “Now, how could these vampires have gotten into the MP?” 

Eren exchanged a long look with Mikasa, his right hand seeking out her left during the interval. She shrugged, clearly leaving it up to him to answer. “Okay, we know these guys can blend in pretty well – they’re obviously a lot older than us and have more experience in pretending to be human,” he began to explain, a little uncomfortable thinking about how easily the trio had fooled them so long ago. “Reiner’s got the worst temper out of the three of them, but he can control it enough to hide what he is. In that aspect, as long as they’re not forced to eat ‘normally’ all of the time, they can pretend to be human.”  
  
Ymir surprised him by speaking up. “Yeah, like the rest of the vampires, they’ve got that part covered. But in order to control the Malform, that takes a lot of time and effort. At least one of them is out there often, subduing them, creating new ones… so that means they’re covering for each other, and covering up the missing people.” She held up her right hand, the claws unsheathed and particularly sharp under the lights in the room. “If they are in the MP, they’d have access to the missing people reports, so that makes sense. On the other hand, someone has to be excusing them from their shifts.” 

There was a loud smacking sound as Captain Hange repeatedly tapped her pen against her notebook, which made Eren, Ymir and even Levi flinch. “Exactly! And as you said, there’s the matter of the ID’s – we checked into yours, and while they’re very good, they have one or two discrepancies that would raise flags if you wanted to join a formal organization like the Freedom Corps or the MPs. You just can’t accurately reproduce actually having lived eighteen years or so under one identity, the accumulated credit charges, the security checks, the medical inoculations and the such.… It once again points to someone having approved the three’s applications.” 

Commander Smith went over to one of the long tables in the room and loomed over it, his large hands formed into fists and resting on the surface. “In other words, all of the evidence is pointing to someone – someone with authority, allowing three vampires into the MP.” He pointedly looked in the direction of Eren and Mikasa. “You understand the implication of that, don’t you? Especially since it recently came to our attention that it is at least to the level of Ministers that they’re conspiring to keep us sealed in the domes?”  
  
“Dammit, Rebel, you told them that?”  
  
“What! What do you mean?” 

Eren flinched at the dual shouts from Ymir and Captain Hange, grateful that he was somewhat sandwiched between Levi and Mikasa at the time. Captain Zacharius moved to calm down the frantic scientist while Mikasa stepped forward to glare at a furious Ymir, going so far as to pull down her scarf. 

“It needed to be done,” she said, her voice quiet yet containing that warning edge of iciness. “They need to know the extent to which the vampires are controlling them.” 

“Yeah but….” Ymir looked ready to tear into something, her fangs peeking out past her upper lip, and then she threw her hands into the air and cursed in Spanish beneath her breath. “Fuck it,” she said a moment later. “I’m dead anyway if we’re caught, and Eren’s going to be locked up and forced to turn as many people as he can while you’re tortured as incentive, Sunshine. Don’t see how this situation can get any worse.” 

Eren started forward at the mention of his sister being tortured, but Levi’s grip on his arm halted his progress. One look from those assessing grey eyes made him settle back, grumbling under his breath as he did, and watch while the commander and the weird captain continued to try to placate a wailing Captain Hange. “What’s her problem?” he asked Levi. 

“Other than she’s fucking insane? Probably that she wants to rush outside right now and prove to the world that she’s a genius.” Levi shrugged. “I say let her go and be eaten by Malforms, it’ll be a lot quieter around here.” 

Uncertain if the man was joking or not, Eren gave him a nervous smile and edged a little closer to Mikasa. The Freedom Corp was proving to be a strong ally, but these people were *insane*. Considering the fact that Eren drank blood to survive and wasn’t considered too stable himself… yeah, the situation was fucked. “Is it too early to start drinking?” 

Levi eyed him as if he was speaking a foreign language for a few seconds, and then a slight smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, washing away some of the habitual sternness from his elegant features until Eren felt something catch in his throat. “I just so happen to know where Erwin hides the good stuff. Not much left, but should be enough for a few rounds.” 

Shaking off the odd feeling that had overcome him, Eren tilted his head in Mikasa’s direction. “You coming?” 

“No way I’m letting you get into trouble without me. That’s a definite recipe for mass destruction.” She smiled to take the sting out of her words, and a familiar warmth spread through him, replacing that odd fluttering. 

Before he could come up with a suitable retort, Ymir shouldered her way into their little group. “If there’s drinking going on, count me in.” She shot a look back at the still squabbling officers. “I’m not sticking around here and being offered up as a scientific sacrifice by way of distraction.” 

“I can always blame this on your shitty brats.” Levi made a tsk’ing sound as he led them out of the room. 

*******

Levi stood with his back to the wall and his arms crossed over his chest; everyone who walked up and down the hallway skittered away from him by at least several feet, looks of fear on their face as they hurried away. He continued to keep watch until he sighted his delinquent prey, strolling along with his bitchy sister and annoyingly cheerful friend. Those unusual golden eyes went wide when they spotted Levi and the brat faltered, appeared ready to turn around to head in the other direction, but Hange was walking too close behind him to allow him a chance to flee. That was all the opportunity that Levi need to pounce on the brat and drag him off by the wrist.

“You go, Sweetie! Take your prize and ravish him!”

He ignored Hange’s insane rambling and what sounded to be Armin doing his best to restrain a furious Mikasa, while Eren let out what was probably a few curses in that old guttural language. People scattered before him once again, determined to be somewhere other than in his way, which was fine with him – it made getting to his quarters much faster than usual. After a minute or two, Eren gave up with the bitching and just sighed.

“Couldn’t you wait another fifteen minutes? We just finished dinner,” Eren asked as they approached the door leading to Levi’s quarters. “I was going to come by soon.”

Levi glanced at the brat over his right shoulder. “Pardon me if I couldn’t shake the suspicion of you finding the nearest roof to hide on.” A slight smirk curved his lips when he noticed Eren’s tell-tale faint blush. “Yeah, I thought so.” Someone hadn’t looked particularly pleased to have been ordered to report here after dinner, after all, and had been making excuses when they’d parted ways after finishing off Erwin’s whisky. “So I figured you could use an escort.”

Eren glared at the hand holding his wrist captive. “Is that what you call this?” He balked for a moment, and let out another curse when he was nearly jerked off of his feet. “You’re such an asshole, you do know that, don’t you?”

“You might have mentioned it once or twice, *Rebel*.” Levi’s smirk intensified when Eren’s glare went up a notch. “Now come on, I’ll even make you some tea.” He paused to open his door and then snapped his arm to swing the damn brat inside.

Sputtering in what sounded to be anger, Eren stumbled forward and just barely prevented himself from falling onto his knees; he stood for a moment in the middle of the office area hunched over with his hands on his knees, his tousled, dark brown hair falling onto his face and his golden eyes blazing through the strands. “Are you seriously not happy unless you’re tormenting the shit out of me?”

Levi leaned against the closed door for a few seconds, his head tilted to the side while he considered the question. “It has become the highlight of my day, lately,” he admitted. There was something about how wonderfully responsive Eren was, how he could take all of Levi’s shit yet still have the spine to dish out his own.

“You….” Eren threw his hands up in the air while he straightened his back. “Gah!” As he brought his hands back down, he ran them through his hair and gave the strands a rough tug, a clear tell of nervousness or exasperation. “One of these days I’m going to mistake you for a Malform, I swear. You’ve got about the same personality.”

Levi rolled his eyes and pushed away from the door. “Quit being such a whiney, dramatic brat,” he ordered while he went over to the small cabinet where he kept his bottled water and the hot water kettle. He set it up to boil before heading to the desk to prepare the teapot, and noticed how Eren watched him measure out the fine tea leaves. “You going to behave now?”

“I suppose.” The brat settled in the chair in front of the desk, looking his physical age for once with the way his long legs were bent in different directions and his hands gripped the front of the seat, his eyes almost abnormally large as he stared at what Levi was doing. “You really get into this whole tea thing, don’t you?”

“If you’re going to do something, do it right.” The wire basket filled with tea, Levi carried it and the pot over to the cabinet, where he used the now hot water to rinse the porcelain pot quickly to warm it up before placing the wire basket inside and then filling it with the filtered hot water. That finished, he returned to the desk with the pot, then went back to fetch the jar of sugar and the small bottle of milk from the mini-fridge. “I don’t believe in half-assing it.”

Eren made a small sound of amusement while he waited for Levi to sit back down. “No, I’ve definitely picked up on that fact.” He smiled while waiting for the tea to steep, the expression transforming his face until, combined with the huge golden eyes and the tousled dark brown hair, he appeared almost as if a fey creature. “We used to have all these big tea and coffee stores when I was younger – it seemed you couldn’t go anywhere without finding one on almost every block. In a way it was nice because you could stop in and have something good to drink at any time, but my mother always liked someplace quiet and unique.” His charming smile became smaller, sadder as he continued to talk. “She was so happy to find a privately owned tea shop. I didn’t understand it back then – a coffee shop was a coffee shop, but looking back… it was so special, the scents, the flavors, the look of all those jars with the leaves and flowers in them….” His eyes darkened the slightest bit as he became lost in the memories.

Levi wondered what it was like to live in a world where you could walk down a street and walk into a store filled with so much tea, to not have to steal it from the world’s wealthiest people. Eren may have suffered more than he could have imagined, but the brat had also lived a life of ‘wealth’ that no one else could grasp – well, other than Mikasa, Ymir and those damn vampires.

With that thought, Levi was reminded of why he’d wanted Eren here tonight. He poured them both a cup of tea and had to control himself to set it down gently in front of the still reminiscing brat.

The soft ‘click’ made Eren snap back to the present. “Oh, thank you.” He was quick to add the sugar and milk, but waited until Levi was finished preparing his tea to have a sip. “This has to be among the best tea I’ve had in… well, a long time. Thank you.”

Levi grunted in acknowledgement of the thanks and nodded once before enjoying a few sips of his own. Then he set the cup aside. “I didn’t invite you here so you could suck down my stash of tea. What’s the deal with you and those three bloodsuckers?” He gave the brat a cold stare, refusing to be put off by a pretty face. “The *real* story.”

The slight smile of enjoyment on Eren’s face vanished at the question and he set aside his unfinished cup of tea as well. “There goes that moment,” he muttered before rubbing his left hand over his eyes. “Look, can we just leave it at once we were friends until Mikasa and I found out the truth about them?” There was a pleading note to his voice.

Like hell they would. “Not after the way you and Ymir reacted earlier today.” Levi’s frigid tone made it perfectly clear that he wanted answers and he wanted them now; he didn’t know why this was bothering him so much, why he felt the need to push the issue, but something was driving him to find out the truth. “Tell me before I-“

“Before you kick my ass. I know.” Eren slumped back in the chair, his expression bitter as if he’d been given something vile to drink, not some of the finest tea in the world. “Honestly? I think I’d rather have the ass-kicking right about now.”

Levi put his hands flat on the desk and began to push up from his chair. “If you think for one second I’m joking….” He left the threat hanging and let the vicious intent he felt – which he knew was showing in his expression - speak for itself.

Eren stared back at him for several seconds before letting out an explosive breath of air and once more tossing up his hands. “You’re a fucking asshole” he snapped, his eyes glowing and his fangs starting to show. “Why does it matter so much?”

“Because there are three motivated vampires who made it into the MP and may have some fucking Ministers at their beck and call out there who are after your ass, and I want to know just how damn literal that is!” Levi slammed his hands onto the desk to emphasis his anger just then. “So start talking!”

“Dammit!” Eren burst into motion, but before Levi could grab onto his blades, the brat was out of the chair and away from the desk. He paced about the room, his right hand jerking through his hair as if the pain helped to center him. “It’s… gah!” He finally came to a stop. “What’s the damn point of the present if you have to keep reliving the fucking past?” There was a peculiar note to his voice, a mixture of confusion and pain.

Feeling oddly drained of adrenalin, Levi sunk back into his chair and reached for his tea. “Don’t ask me, brat, I’m still trying to figure it out myself.” He drained the cup dry before motioning with it to the empty chair in front of him. “Sit. Talk. Now.”

Eren made a huffing noise but did as he was told, for once. “Captain Napoleon.” It probably was meant as an insult, but there was an almost affectionate tone to the words. Practically falling into the chair, Eren tucked back the strands dark like a proper tea falling into his eyes with a trembling hand. “Just… keep an open mind, all right?”

“You know that things never turn out good when someone asks that question,” Levi pointed out. When he was given a virulent glare for his troubles, he heaved a sigh of annoyance. “Get on with it.”

“A bossy asshole at that,” Eren grumbled while he reached for his tea. After a few sips, he set it aside. “It’s true – Mikasa and I thought that Annie, Bertolt and Reiner were friends at first. We ran into them when we were looking for someone we knew, someone who had known about what we really were but who had gotten old and senile. We’d paid for people to look after him over the years, and the last update we’d received was that he was losing his mind and saying stuff that he shouldn’t.” Eren frowned at the desk, his attention no longer on Levi. “He’d run away from the person taking care of him, so we went looking for him.” He took to running the fingers of his right hand along the exposed wire of his gauntlet.  
  
Levi wanted to ask what they had planned to do with the old man, but thought better of it – Eren and Mikasa didn’t seem the type to kill humans, at least not casually. They also didn’t seem the type to just go about revealing their secret, so this must have been back when they were still relatively young.

“We came across the trio while searching for Thierry – the old guy. The three of them offered to help and… there was something about them.” A blush spread across Eren’s face. “Later Mikasa and I learned that it was a way to recognize vampires, but back then, it was something that drew us in. Since it had been a while since we’d been around humans for any length of time, when Reiner and Bertolt showed an interest in me… I didn’t see a point to turn them down.” His blush deepened, especially when he glanced up at Levi.

“So let me get this straight, you started… ‘dating’ two vampires at the same time.”

“Uhm, it wasn’t really… dating since we never went out anywhere.” Eren managed a nervous grin and continued to toy with his gauntlet. “Do I really need to talk about this with you?”

Shit, no wonder Ymir had laughed so much when Erwin kept saying ‘threesome’. “You mean you fucked both of them at the same time? Repeatedly?” A brat who barely looked like he should know what to do with a cock in the first place? Levi needed more tea – hell, he needed something stronger than tea, but it would have to do for now.

The blush started to fade as Eren’s brows drew together. “Yeah, is there a problem with that? I mean, it’s not the most conventional relationship, but what’s wrong with it?”

“What wrong with it? Other than the fact that you fucked two vampires and all? At the same time.” Levi didn’t need that mental image right now. Was it getting hot in here? Suddenly uncomfortable, he leaned over the desk to glare at Eren. “What, you decide to just fuck anybody when you became a bloodsucker?”

“I didn’t know they were vampires!” Eren’s voice grew louder and his eyes brighter, but at least his fangs remained hidden. “All I knew was that two hot guys were interested in sex without any strings attached. And you know what? It was *great*, the sex.” His smile made a return as he leaned back in the chair, his back arched as he lifted his arms above his head. There was suddenly an… an ‘edge’ to Eren, was the only way Levi could describe it, a sharpness to his expression, his gaze, the lean lines of his body…. “Reiner could fuck forever, while Bertolt could make me come again and *again*.”

Why the *hell* was this bothering Levi so much? He wanted to jump over the desk and smack some manners into the brat, to… to…. Shit, he didn’t know *what* exactly he wanted to do, and that was the most frustrating, terrifying part. The one thing he did know was that he didn’t want to hear anything more about Eren fucking those two undead bastards – or anybody at all. “Shut the hell up about them, I don’t want to hear about how they got your sick ass off,” he snarled. “That’s not why you’re here, to tell me about your filthy sex life.”

Eren let out a long breath as if he’d been holding it in and shook his head, the sharpness instantly gone. “Hey, you’re the one asking the questions, I’m just answering them.” He sat up in the chair and once more ran his hands through his hair, holding back the dark strands from his face for a moment to reveal a weary expression, his eyes huge and shadowed. Dammit, Levi hated it when the golden color darkened like that.

The question slipped out before Levi could stop himself. “How can you care so much about casual sex?” From the look on the brat’s face right now, this topic wasn’t a happy one. So why did he keep putting himself through it? Why did he risk pissing off his sister so much?

“Eh?” Eren reached for his teacup and seemed to have forgotten that it was empty. He stared into it until Levi clicked his tongue and snatched it so that he could refill it. “Casual? Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it that when sex is just sex.” He accepted the refilled cup and paused to fix it. “We learned early on that it was a bad idea to reveal the truth about ourselves to anyone – Thierry being a point – so it’s difficult to have a real relationship with anyone when you’re keeping such an important secret from a person. And we’re constantly moving on, so it’s never long term.” He paused again to sip his tea, his eyes rising to meet Levi’s. “So it’s always a short-term relationship, and when you live so long… everything’s the equivalent of a one-night stand to me at this point, be it actually a few hours or a few weeks. I don’t see why I should make the effort to have anything more. To be honest? I don’t know if I ever did.”

Levi tried to see things from Eren’s point of view – he had enough experience with people dying on him, of being the one to survive. Erwin and Hange were among the oldest friends left to him at this point, and all of them were living on borrowed time. Each of them had their own set of walls built around them to deal with the constant death and loss, so who was he to mock what the brat had done to keep marginally sane for *centuries*.

“Yeah, but did you have to fuck *vampires*?” His expression of disgust was exaggerated but his tone mild as he picked up his own cup of tea by its rim with his fingertips.

“Oh fuck *you*, Captain Napoleon.” There was a hint of a smile on Eren’s face as he set aside his own cup and rested his elbows on the edge of the desk, his chin propped up in his right hand. “I keep telling you that I. Didn’t. Fucking. Know.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Levi sipped his tea for a moment. “So, is there going to be a problem because of all that ‘amazing’ sex?” He didn’t spare the sarcasm just then.

“Ha! Yeah, I’m sure Reiner and Bertolt will surrender in hopes of picking up where we left off.” The brat rolled his eyes and shook his head to emphasis the sarcasm. “I’m pretty sure the main reason they picked me up in the first place was just to get to know Mikasa and me better, and in hopes of us going along with them peacefully. That didn’t happen – Annie did something to spook Mikasa and we ran away before they could get us to drink the kool-aid.” When Levi stared at him in confusion, Eren just shook his head again. “Uhm, their plan failed. Anyway, I don’t think they like me so much anymore.” He didn’t appear bothered by that fact.

That was good to know, Levi supposed. The last thing he wanted to worry about was the brat harboring any tender feelings toward the enemy, creating a conflict of interest. Still, it was best to be certain. “So there won’t be any problems with you chopping off their heads if given the first opportunity, right?” He held his cup close to his chest and stared intently at Eren while he asked the question.

Eren sat up and stared back, his eyes glowing faintly as he met Levi’s gaze without any qualms. “Hell no, there won’t be. Those assholes have chased Mikasa and me around the fucking world for the last millennium, do you think I won’t relish the chance for a bit of peace?”

Momentarily distracted with the thought of seeing the world, Levi continued to gaze at Eren’s lovely face and the fervent expression on it, the light in his unusual eyes. What would it be like to travel the world? To be so free, to be able to walk out under the sun whenever you wanted, to feel the wind on your skin, through your hair and turn to see some smiling, insolent brat at your side….

He forced himself to move, to set the cup of tea back on the desk. “Good. Because we’re taking those shitstains out the first opportunity that presents itself.” His voice was rough for some reason, making him frown at the top of his desk.

“Look, Cap- Levi, I’m not trying to defend them, but all of them are pretty skilled fighters, Annie especially.” Eren sat back in his chair. “Don’t underestimate them, and definitely don’t hold back when fighting them.” His tone turned grim. “Even then, you’re going to lose people.”

Levi forced himself to look up, to find Eren looking at him with something akin to pity. That stopped him from making some sort of snarky comment. “We’ll still take them on.”  
  
“I know.” Eren closed his eyes and rubbed at his face as if tired. “They need to be stopped, especially if they’re creating Malform.”

They both were quiet for a couple of minutes while they finished their tea. When it looked as if Eren was getting ready to leave, something finally occurred to Levi. “Hey, brat, I thought you said that you realized that vampires were out there when you kept running into people who didn’t age.”

Judging from how wide that Eren’s eyes just went, he knew that he’d scored a direct hit – he smiled in anticipation of how the brat would try to get out of this one.

“Uhm, I think Mikasa is waiting for me….”  
  
“Rebel….”

“Dammit!” Eren’s cheeks became flushed and he almost slammed the cup down before he remembered that it was fragile. “Did you really think we’d stand there when we first met and say ‘yeah, we ran into these vampires and after having sex with two of them, hung out for a while until one day they revealed their true selves’?” He folded his arms over his chest and gave Levi a challenging glare.

The brat had a point, but it was fun to rile him up. “Why not? Would have been amusing to see Erwin’s reaction.” It was worth keeping a straight face to see Eren’s jaw drop at the remark.

Eren stared at him for several seconds before shaking his head. “You know what? I think I’ve had enough for tonight. Thanks for the tea, but I’m going to gather what remains of my dignity and find a place to hide for the next several hours.” He rose to his feet as he spoke and turned to leave without waiting for permission.

“Just be prepared tomorrow to go out on patrol after a bit of training,” Levi warned him. “Oh, and you might want to watch out for Hange.” He smiled some more when he noticed the brat’s shoulders slump.

“Maybe I should just hand myself over to the vampires now,” Eren mumbled as he left the room.

It was nice to know that some people were so easy to torment, Levi thought to himself as he finished his tea.

*******

Eren made his way back to the sleeping quarters he shared with the other new recruits, hoping to find Mikasa there so he could talk with his sister.  The conversation with Levi left him feeling… he didn’t know exactly how he felt just then. The emotions inside of him were so muddled, so potent and malleable that he couldn’t get them to hold still and be analyzed. It didn’t help that he wasn’t very good at figuring things like this out at the best of times. 

There were dozens of people in the large, cavernous room, young Freedom Corps recruits resting after a hard day of work and training or preparing for their late shift. Several called out to him in greeting: Sasha, Daz and Mina among them, and he managed a weak smile in return. He didn’t see any signs of Ymir and Krista, and supposed that they had gone somewhere else to find some privacy. Continuing deeper into the room, toward the sleeping area, he felt a pang of disappointment when he didn’t find his sister’s familiar scent. Mikasa wasn’t there, but Armin was curled up on the lower bunk of the bed they shared, reading from a datapad. 

“Eren! You were gone longer than I thought.” His friend smiled at him while marking his place on the datapad before setting it aside. “I thought you were just giving Captain Ackerman a brief summary.” 

Eren wrinkled his nose in disgust at how well that ‘brief summary’ turned out. “Yeah, well, you know what they say about assumptions.” He shared a quick grin with Armin. “Where’s Mikasa?” 

“Eh, she went out with Petra and Olou, something about wanting to see what turns up around headquarters.” Judging from the sharp glint in Armin’s blue eyes, he was aware that something was going on, but he’d wait a little while longer to see if he was let in on the secret before he dragged the truth out of them. “Why, is something wrong?” 

Running his fingers through his hair and wincing a little when he encountered a knot, Eren shrugged. “I just… well, I wanted to talk to her.” When those blue eyes became wider as if from hurt feelings – a tactic that Armin had perfected as a child and had no shame in performing well past his adolescence – Eren sighed and jerked his head in the direction of an emergency exit. “But you’ll do.” 

“I should certainly hope so.” Armin had also perfected the art of sarcasm over the years, so much so that Eren couldn’t hold back a rueful grin. Levi had asked why wouldn’t they ‘change’ their friend? Well, other than the concern of what a life of constant killing would do to someone like Armin, Mikasa and him had to admit there was a very real fear that they’d wake up one day to Armin ruling the world. Maybe that would be good, maybe not, it all depended on if the darkness ever took hold in their dear friend. They just knew they wouldn’t be a match for him if it did. 

“And what nonsense are you thinking about now, hmm?”  
  
Eren shook his head as he held open the door that led outside. “Oh, just that Mikasa and I didn’t know what we were getting into when we took pity on this snotty-nosed little kid all those years ago.” 

There had been a time when they never brought up how they’d come across Armin, since it had been one of the more tragic days in their lives. But there was a tiny kernel of truth in the idiom that ‘time heals all wounds’. Oh, the pain was still there – Eren would *never* forget the agony of losing his mother – yet there was some sort of perspective gained. Armin was most likely dwelling on memories of his grandfather, of how the honorable man had to his dying breath strived to ensure that the boy was in good hands. What was lessened over the years was the obvious fear that Armin felt at being ‘handed over’ into the care of two strangers – and frightening ones at that. 

Armin snorted in derision as he followed Eren to a quiet corner of the training grounds. “It didn’t help that you and Mikasa seemed little more than snotty kids yourself.” He seemed to think about something for a moment. “Well, at least you did.” 

“Gee, *thanks*.” Eren knocked his left shoulder into his friend, startling out a cheerful laugh that echoed through the empty space around them. Armin laughed a few more seconds before growing more serious. 

“All right, we didn’t come out here to reminisce. What’s going on? Somehow I think it has to do with a certain captain.” 

Well, there went the good mood that Eren had strived to establish. He sighed and smoothed his fingers over the ends of the gauntlet that poked out from the end of his left sleeve. “Is it that obvious?” He leaned back against one of the wooden pillars used for rappelling training. 

Armin laughed a little more, the sound a bit darker than something that should come from someone looking his physical age. “Don’t you realize how much time you’ve been spending with him? Between the training, the patrols and the private talks?” He tilted his head to the side while giving Eren a scrutinizing look, his hands fisted on his hips. “I hear a lot from Mikasa about how the ‘short bastard’ is monopolizing you.” 

“Levi’s really focused on finding-“  
  
“*Levi*? Since when is Captain Ackerman ‘Levi’?” There was a slight smile on Armin’s face and a high arch to his right eyebrow; those were *never* a good sign, as it meant that he was on to something and wouldn’t give up until he followed it through. “What happened to ‘Captain Napoleon’?” 

When had he started calling the man ‘Levi’? Was it after that night in his office, when Eren had been given permission to do so? When he’d seen a more informal side to the normally infuriating bastard? But there’d also been that night up on the roof, when it had been so nice to just sit and talk, to feel the presence of another person at his side…. “Uhm, he said I could….” Eren rubbed at his eyes, feeling very confused at the moment. Why did this one particular person make him feel this way? 

Armin stepped closer until he could tug at Eren’s hand and pull it down. “What did you want to talk to Mikasa about?” His voice was quiet, his tone soothing, as if he could sense how upset Eren was inside. 

What *did* he want to talk to his sister about? He hadn’t really told Levi anything important this time, hadn’t revealed any big secrets for once, so it had just been to try and work out his thoughts, right? “I don’t know what I’m doing,” Eren tried to explain. “I thought it would be so simple, just come here, get the Freedom Corps to help us and win against the vampires for once. Why is it all mixed up right now?” 

“So you’re confused.” Armin gave his right hand a squeeze. “You’re really confused about something. Am I wrong to think you’re confused because of Levi, since you just came from seeing him?” 

Eren thought about the question for a moment. “Well, Captain Hange doesn’t help, and that other Captain is really weird as well, but yeah, he confuses me the most. I should hate him – he’s such an asshole and won’t deny it, he treats me like his favorite punching bag at times and yet… I can talk to him. Do you know how rare it is to find someone I can talk to? I mean, other than you, Mikasa and Ymir?” At least he knew how he felt about the three of them, be it good or bad. 

There was a look similar to pity on his friend’s face. “Well, the three of us are friends, more or less. I get the feeling that ‘Levi’ might be something different entirely, and that’s what has you so perplexed.” Armin seemed to consider something for a moment. “Eren, in all the years you’ve lived, have you ever cared for someone in a romantic sense?” 

What the hell did this have to do with anything? “I thought we were talking about me being messed up, not something hypothetical.” Eren tried to tug his hand free, but Armin could be stubborn when he wanted. “Look, it’s probably… I don’t know, Stockholm Syndrome or something, right? He’s got me so turned around between the kicks to the head and then offers for tea that I don’t know which way is up.” 

“I can certainly see why someone wants to hit you in the head,” Armin muttered under his breath, well aware that Eren could still hear him. “Look, in my opinion? It’s been centuries since you and Mikasa have been able to tell anyone what you are, and now you’ve done just that. You’ve also done it to someone who is good-looking, intelligent, and – his temper aside – has a few traits that I can see being attractive to you. I think you’re interested in Levi.” 

And Armin was supposed to be the intelligent one out of their group? The one they counted on to cure humanity? They were *doomed*. “I’m interested in a *lot* of people,” he pointed out with more than a hint of talking down to an idiot. “I could name ten people right now that I wouldn’t mind dragging someplace semi-private and having sex with them. Is Levi on that list? Yeah, he’s fuckable if you look past the sadistic nature. I don’t mind the occasional rough partner. But I could just as well fuck Erd or Commander Smith or-“ 

“That’s enough.” A rare spark of anger colored Armin’s high-pitched voice and glimmered in his blue eyes. “You know that’s not what I’m talking about. I’ve witnessed you using enough men over the years to get things that we need or as outlets for sex, and I can honestly say that *none* of them have affected you like this.” He made a sound in the back of his throat as if he wanted to shout but was mindful of his surroundings, and lifted his fists to smack them into Eren’s chest. “Dammit! Sometimes I honestly believe that you don’t give a shit about anything but Mikasa and me! That if the others and the Malform wiped out everyone else, you’d be able to carry on as if nothing happened!” 

Eren caught at his friend’s hands yet didn’t push them away. “That’s not…” What? Wasn’t true? He hated the Malform and the vampires with a passion, wanted them gone for what they’d done to his mother and his world, for all that he and Mikasa had suffered. He hated that they had ripped apart Armin’s world. But sometimes… sometimes everything else was so far away. “I don’t….” 

Armin stepped closer and slid his arms around Eren to embrace him. “You don’t let people in, Eren. Not really. Those of us you do, we’re so special, so lucky and we know it, but you need to let others in as well. Don’t be afraid to let Levi in. I think you’ve already have a little bit, and that’s why you’re feeling so uncertain.” He pulled back a little to give Eren’s forehead a tap. “It can be frightening, I know, but did you ever regret letting Mikasa and me in?” 

“I don’t think you want to hear that answer right now.” Eren scowled at his friend while he rubbed his forehead to fend off the beginning of a headache, and the smug bastard merely smiled back at him. 

“You just hate the fact that I’m always right.”  
  
“Not helping things.” Eren tucked back the hair falling onto his face and sighed. “You really think I’m… for *Levi*?” The concept was just so… he needed another drink. Dammit, maybe Commander Smith had some more whisky tucked away somewhere. 

“Yeah, I think you’re finally developing feelings for someone. Maybe it takes centuries instead of years for you to reach emotional puberty.” Armin smiled at his joke and laughed when Eren punched him on the arm. “Oh come on, I thought it was funny.” 

“You would.” Eren rubbed at the back of his neck since the forehead trick didn’t work and wondered if it was at all possible for his life to become any more messed up. “What am I going to do?” 

Armin shrugged. “What everyone else does when they develop a crush, suffer through it, try not to make too much of an ass of yourself and hope that the person likes you back.” When Eren groaned at the thought of *Levi* liking him, Armin grinned. “I don’t think you need to worry about that last part – not when I’ve caught him checking out your ass several times and if Captain Hange’s comments are anything to go by.”  
  
It took a few seconds to process that. “What?” There was no way Levi might like him, the man lived to torture him. “He’s too busy beating me up to like me.” 

“I believe that we’ve actually found someone who is even less romantically and emotionally developed than you. Congratulations,” Armin remarked, his tone perfectly dry. Dammit, the bastard was *enjoying* this, wasn’t he? See if Eren made him apple tarts in the near future….

“Ha, ha. You’re just loving this, aren’t you?” Eren glared as he pushed himself away from the rappelling pillar. 

“Hmm, I must admit it’s some of the best entertainment I’ve seen in years. It’ll only get better once Mikasa figures out what’s going on.” Armin looked remarkably chipper at the thought of imminent bloodshed – there was no doubt about it, being raised by two… whatever Eren and Mikasa were had definitely warped the kid. 

“And here I thought *I* had problems,” Eren muttered. “*You* need help,” he told his friend. 

“I need a lot of things that are none of your business, but I’ll settle for standing back and watching you flail about at your first real relationship. I get my amusement where I can.” Armin grabbed him by the left arm and began to drag him back to their sleeping quarters, an evil smirk on his face. “Now, let’s see about cleaning you up a bit so we can speed things along – when’s the last time you ran a comb through your hair? Hmm, we’ll get the girls to help out with that. Oh, I know! We’ll call for a make-over session, Mina said that they were a bit bored tonight, that’ll give them something to do and help you to make some new friends-” 

Eren was wondering what it said about his own parenting skills in that he’d helped raised such a manipulative, slyly sadistic brat with a falsely innocent façade. Maybe it was all Mikasa’s fault?

*******

Mikasa trailed after Petra and Olou, her right hand pressed against her scarf as if to keep it from slipping away from her face. Instead, she used the soft fabric to hide the slight smile as the petite, auburn-haired woman repeatedly put her foolish partner in his place, snapping in annoyance at each ridiculous comment that he made. “The Malforms aren’t hiding because they’re terrified of your presence. Your cologne, maybe, as it’s the most hideous thing I’ve smelled this side of a decomposing body, but definitely not your presence.”

“Oh Petra, you’re trying much too hard to hide your true feelings for me, as always. Don’t be shy just because we have a third wheel with us tonight.” He paused to look over his shoulder and ‘smile’ at Mikasa, the expression making his face resemble that of a corpse caught in rigor mortis in her opinion. When Mikasa allowed a hint of her true nature to shine in her eyes, he nearly tripped over his own feet in his haste to hurry away from her. “The-there’s no need to be sh-shy!”

“Why would I be shy? I’m just exercising good taste. Now be quiet – we’ll never find anything if you keep jabbering away all night.”

“I’m not ‘jabbering’, I’m speaking in an elloqu-ack!”

Mikasa scented blood in the air and sighed into her scarf; really, how did the idiot man manage to still have a tongue with as often as he bit into it? Judging from the exasperated groan that Petra made, she must be thinking along the same line. Used to the half-hearted chiding that took place whenever Olou hurt himself, Mikasa tuned it out so she could pay attention to her surroundings.

So far, there hadn’t been any signs of the trio in the vicinity around the Freedom Corps’ headquarters; if it was being staked out at all, then the vampires must be using human accomplices. Mikasa hadn’t picked up any vampire or Malform scent, which put her partially at ease – humans would be easier to fight, but she’d rather have an enemy who was easier to detect.

Now they were several blocks away from headquarters, and she worried that the risk of running into either Annie, Bertolt or Reiner would increase. Yet a part of her relished the idea of fighting them, especially when Eren wouldn’t be involved. If she could take out one of them, eliminate part of the threat…

Olou seemed to get over his pain so they resumed their patrol, strolling through the streets. People began to withdraw as the lights dimmed for the night, returning home for the false safety it provided; many gave them deep nods in passing, an added respect that Mikasa had noticed since the attack in the park.

“Here, let’s get something to drink before it closes for the night.” Olou still had slight lisp from his bitten tongue and probably wanted something to wash away the taste of blood; he motioned at a small store selling refreshments and take-away food.

Petra looked as if she was about to disagree, her eyes narrowed and lips pursed, then glanced at Mikasa with a bright smile on her face. “Do you want anything? It’s Olou’s treat.” Her smile strengthened when Olou practically squawked in protest.

“No, I’m fine, but thank you. I’ll wait out here.” Mikasa watched the two of them enter the store, Olou still complaining about having to buy the drinks, and leaned against the building’s glass front.

After a couple of minutes of idle observation, her heartbeat raced when she recognized the colors of the MP uniforms in the distance, until she realized that there was no familiar vampire scent and that the builds of the two young men approaching were completely wrong. She thought that they would walk right past her, but as they came closer, the taller of the two slowed down and stared.

“You!”

She straightened up and frowned as he approached, on guard despite the fact that he smelled human. Was he associated with the trio? Did he know about her somehow?  
  
The MP continued to approach, despite the fact that the shorter MP hissed at him to be quiet. “I recognize you,” the MP proclaimed, an intent look on his long yet handsome face. “You were at the park with the other Wi- ah, the rest of the Freedom Corps.”

He was there? She tried to recall seeing him but couldn’t remember. All that came to mind was making sure that Eren was all right, getting him away from the short bastard and then finding out about Bertolt. “Yes, I was there.”

“I thought so!” A wide grin broke out over the MP’s face for a moment, and then he suddenly became serious. “Ah, yeah, so, what’s the deal with your boyfriend?”

She stared at him in confusion for several seconds and even glanced beyond at his partner, who merely looked back and shrugged, his expression clearly saying she was on her own. “Ah, my boyfriend? I don’t have one.”

He frowned at her for several then his grin crept back. “So the young kid with the weird eyes isn’t your boyfriend?”

He was asking about Eren? She pushed away from the wall and grabbed hold of his black and green coat. “What do you want with my brother,” she demanded to know, struggling to keep control of her eyes and fangs.

“Jean!”

The MP – Jean – flung out his left arm to hold back his partner while he stared down at her, a bead of sweat sliding down the left side of his face. “He’s your brother, but you don’t- A quick shake of his jacket made him yelp. “Okay! I just wanted to know about him! It’s odd, always seeing him with Captain Ackerman! That guy is one of the Corps’ best, he’s never assigned to personally train the new recruits from what I hear.”

She studied him for a few more seconds to determine if he was lying to her and didn’t think this was an act. Letting out a breath, she forced her hands to unclench from his jacket. “It’s none of your business, why he’s with Captain Ackerman.”

For a moment it looked as if he wanted to complain, but then he seemed to think better of it. “So you and your brother joined the Freedom Corps? Oh, I’m Jean – Jean Kirstein.” He held out his hand.

She stared at for a moment before accepting it. “Mikasa Stieger. And yes, we both joined.” An idea was forming in her head as she recognized the signs of interest in this MP; she tugged down the scarf and gave him a slight smile. “We’re both in Captain Ackerman’s personal squad.”  
  
That revelation made the MP’s – Jean’s light brown eyes go wide in surprise. “Really? How could someone so- no, I know, none of my business.” He laughed a little while he rubbed the back of his head, where the darker hair was cut close to the scalp. “You must be really good if you managed to make Captain Ackerman’s squad at such a young age. I’m stuck running errands for Captain Dok, myself.”

“You shouldn’t limit your potential,” she murmured while her eyes were downcast; Eren was better at the seduction routine, could play the innocent much better, but she had realized over the years that a certain amount of shy aloofness was attractive in its own right. Between that and her exotic looks, it seemed to be enough for some people. “I’m sure you’re very good at what you do.”

A slight flush colored Jean’s face and he produced a nervous laugh – he really was good looking, was someone she’d normally find attractive if it wasn’t that he came across as so *young*. “Thanks.” His expression hardened after a few seconds. “Though I think… maybe there’s still a lot I have to learn. I was hoping to talk to your brother.”

She forced herself not to react to that statement. “Unfortunately, he’s rather busy at the moment.” She pushed away as if she were about to go into the store. “I should join the others, we still have a patrol to fin-“

“Ah! That’s not to say that I wouldn’t love to spend time with you!” Jean once more appeared flustered, his face red and slightly sweaty. “Mikasa, right! What do you say to meeting up with me when you’re off-duty one night? Maybe tomorrow? Would that be all right?” When she seemed to hesitate, he forced a nervous grin and gestured to his partner who stood back a few feet, a bored expression on his round face. “Look, you can bring a friend, all right? I’ll bring Connie with me so it’ll be like a group outing. No pressure!” The partner – Connie – opened his mouth to probably protest being dragged along, but a quick glare from Jean had him shutting it and shaking his head instead. “Please say yes,” Jean pleaded when he turned back to Mikasa, a hesitant smile on his face.

Taking a moment to pretend to think about the offer, Mikasa finally gave in with a bit of grace. “All right, I suppose it’ll be fun.” She held out her right hand, and after a few seconds Jean seemed to realize what she wanted; he handed over his datapad so she could type in a time and place for them to meet. “Don’t be late.”

“We won’t be!” He clutched the datapad in his left hand as he backed away, keeping her in his sights for several feet. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” He nearly tripped in his attempt to walk backwards before he finally turned around, a silly grin on his face. Once he reached his partner, the shorter MP chided him about being dragged into a blind date and how he better not end up spending his night off with an ugly girl.

Mikasa watched the two young men walk away, down the rest of the block and then onto a side street, and then turned toward Petra, who was holding out a small bottle of flavored water.

“I know you said that you didn’t want anything, but I thought you might want something after all that talking.” There was a sparkle of amusement in the petite woman’s light brown eyes.

“Thank you.” Mikasa accepted the bottle, opened it and took a sip, nodding once in appreciation of the crisp lemon flavor. “How long have you been listening?”

“Oh, the last minute or two,” Petra explained. “I didn’t want to interrupt anything.” She motioned to Olou, who came out of the store as well with a sulky expression on his face and a small bottle of what looked to be iced coffee in his right hand. “So, you’re going on a date?”

Mikasa nodded again. “I believe that MP – Jean Kirstein – might be the one that Eren mentioned to me, now that I think about it.” Her brother had said something about two MPs following him to the park, and one of them being a ‘horse-face’. “He seems rather interested in Eren, which is reason enough for me to want to know more about him, and it’s a good opportunity for me to ask questions about some new members of the MPs.”

“You’re not supposed to talk about that, per the Captain’s orders,” Olou hissed.

“Talk about what? She can say the word ‘MP’.” Petra shook her head and shifted so that her back was turned toward her partner. “I think it’s a great idea. Just be sure to be careful.”

“Hmm.” Mikasa finished drinking her water and disposed of the bottle in the recycle bin set out in front of the shop. “I will be, that’s why I made certain to pick the time and place.”

Petra finished her drink as well then motioned for them to resume their patrol, leaving Olou to hurry up to follow. “And what about a date for his partner?”  
  
“I figure that Sasha owes me for all of the meals I’ve given her.” Mikasa smiled as she tugged up her scarf. “The least she can do is tag along and let a stranger buy her dinner.”

That set Petra off laughing as they walked down the street and discussed where she should make the MPs take them out to dinner, Olou trailing behind them as if a lost puppy.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and the next chapter is going to be another flashback, and we're going to get bloody again (for that one and the one after that, at the very least). Things are going to be kicked up a notch, as they say. But yeah, finally going to be some movement in the Levi/Eren front now (well, you're going to have to wait until ch14 for that, as ch13 is basically Eren and Mikasa, but that will be some important history for them). And we're going to pull Jean, Connie and Sasha in some more. Yay. Unless that whole 'bloody' thing pertains to them....
> 
> Comments are greatly appreciated! Love to know what people are thinking of what happens.


	13. Jackie O

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, another flashback to Eren and Mikasa's past, where we delve into just how messed up those two are (largely Eren). There's a bit of my take on canon in this one, and filling in some things that have been dropped in hints. Would be interested in hearing your thoughts.
> 
> Obviously, it's a bit of a bloody chapter, in that there's a body count. Fair warning there.
> 
> Also, you get a bit of background on how several characters were formally introduced. So it's a bit of an 'answer' chapter, too. Next one we're back to the 'present'. As always, thanks so much for the kudos and comments!

*******

Eren sat on his bed with its soft grey comforter, his knees drawn up to his chest and his chin resting upon them. He hated it when his parents argued, hated to hear his mama upset, but really hated it when he knew that it was all his fault. He hugged his knees tighter to his body in an effort to seek out some warmth, some sort of comfort and wished that she was in here with him and not out there with his papa, with all of the yelling and anger. 

“We need to get him into a special program, need to deal with this right away!” There was a loud thudding sound that added to the anger in his papa’s deep voice. “There’s a good one in Berlin-“

“No! I won’t let you send him away! Your answer is always to go away, to push aside what you don’t want to deal with, Grisha, and I won’t let you do that to our only child!” For once, Eren’s mama sounded just as upset as his papa.  

“This isn’t about me avoiding the issue, dammit! Did you see what he did to that child? That boy required medical attention, Carla! That wasn’t merely a childish squabble, those were serious lacerations that required stitches! Eren attacked him as if he were a savage animal, not a four year old child! The childcare center doesn’t want him back anymore, and I don’t blame them!” 

There was a sound a lot like what Eren was making, his crying stifled against his bare knees, and then his mama spoke, her voice sounding strange for some reason. “Then I won’t send him back, I’ll take care of him myself. He was just… he said that boy was picking on another child, that he was doing something wrong. Eren thought he was in the right, standing up for the other boy. He just… he went too far.” 

Eren’s papa sighed, long and heavy like he did sometimes when Eren did something that he wasn’t supposed to do. “Honey… this isn’t something you can teach him, like how to read or mathematics. I’m not a psychiatrist, but there’s indications that he’s not… he’s not right. That he might have… certain developmental issues, psychological-wise. We really should-“ 

“No! I won’t let you send him away! This isn’t one of your experiments, you can’t look at your son so detachedly! You try to take him from me and I’ll leave you, Grisha, I swear I will! I’ll take Eren away and help him out myself!” 

His mama sounded so upset, so angry that Eren wrapped his arms around his head and cried, scared at what was happening in the other room, scared that she would come in here and be angry at him. He rocked himself back and forth while curled up on top of his bed, seeking whatever comfort he could find and wished he could take back what had happened earlier, wished so hard that things would just go back to normal. Sobs wracked his body and he could barely breathe yet he remained tucked into a ball as if by being so small that all the bad things would pass him by and everything would be normal soon. 

The sound of his bedroom door opening made him still, his breath catching in his throat. “Eren? Oh baby.” His mama’s soft voice was followed by her footsteps, and soon the bed was rocked as she sat near him and her arms wrapped around him. “Oh baby, it’s all right.” She kept repeating that while rubbing her hands up and down his back until he finally had the courage to look up.  
  
“Ma-mama?”  
  
She was so pretty when she smiled at him and wiped at his face with her warm fingers. “Yes, baby. Oh, look at the mess you made.” She clicked her tongue and used the end of her soft sleeve to dry his tears, then reached over to his nightstand for some tissues so he could blow his nose. “Feel a little better now?”  

He hesitated before answering. “Papa…” Papa had sounded so angry…. 

“Don’t worry about Papa, it’s okay right now.” She leaned over to give him a kiss on the forehead. “We were just discussing a few things.” 

He hugged her with all his strength, his face pressed against her soft, blue shirt. “I’m sorry, Mama! I didn’ mean to be bad!” He didn’t mean to hurt anyone. He just wanted to stop that bad boy.  
  
“I know, Eren. You’re my good boy.” She stroked his hair and rocked him back and forth while humming beneath her breath. “You’re going to stay home with me now, won’t that be fun?” She hummed some more when he nodded. “Yes, we’ll have fun.” She hugged him close and kissed the top of his head. “Now let’s get you cleaned up – a warm bath will do you good, yes?” 

He didn’t want a bath, but his mama smiled at him and wasn’t mad anymore, so he smiled back and nodded. 

******* 

Eren walked alongside his father, the long red scarf his mother had knitted for him wrapped around his neck against the autumn chill and his hands shoved into his black coat since he’d forgotten his mittens. He kicked at a pebble that lay along the travel-worn path that led to the cottage of his father’s patients, bored and wishing that he was still at home and able to play with his online game. 

“Now remember to be polite,” his father admonished. “The Ackerman’s have a little girl about your age who is very polite – her name is Mikasa. If you do well today, I’ll bring you along on my next visit.” He looked down at Eren, a stern expression on his face. 

“I know – Mama told me that I’m always supposed to be nice to ladies.” Eren struggled not to pout since he knew that it would make his father angry. He knew that this was a big deal, that it wasn’t often that his parents let him play with other children – children who seemed to avoid him anyway. Would this Mikasa avoid him as well? He kicked at another pebble to distract himself from the hollow feeling in his chest. 

“Yes, well, do your best to not forget and not lose – to behave yourself.” Eren’s father shuffled the black leather satchel he was carrying between his hands. “I won’t be here too long today, just to check up on some new medication that I gave Mrs. Ackerman, but we’ll see how it goes.” 

They were quiet after that, with Eren looking around him as he followed his father. He didn’t often get a chance to wander around far from his home like this, especially since he played by himself. Lake Havel should be to the north, and somewhere around here should be the old Wenzel farmhouse, he thought to himself. He had seen in some of the local chatrooms of games in which he played that kids said it was haunted and would dare each other to go there, but he hadn’t been able to go find out for himself since his mother never let him leave home for too long. All of the tall, looming trees around them and rustling of unseen creatures would make it a wonderful place for ghosts…. 

“All right, remember your manners,” Eren’s father told him *yet again* as they approached what looked to be an old converted farmhouse with new windows and roof, a mostly empty garden out front now that it was autumn and a wooden table where the family probably sat when outside. A few garden tools leaned against the whitewashed wall near the red-painted door, which stood slightly ajar and with something spray painted on it - Eren squinted as he tried to make out the word, it wasn’t one he recognized. Eren’s father held out his right arm to stop Eren. “That doesn’t look right. Wait here, okay?” 

“But-“  
  
“Wait here.” This time he spoke in a harsher tone, and when Eren looked up at him, gave him a shaky smile. “Let me see what’s going on.” He didn’t wait for an answer, just approached the door while calling out. “Roger? Miyumi? Mikas- ah!” 

Hearing the shock in his father’s voice, Eren disregarded the order and joined him in the doorway, where he could look inside the small home. The door opened into a dining room/kitchen area, which was a big mess. There was red everywhere, which he realized was blood – blood from the man slumped not far from the door, his eyes wide open and his mouth tugged into a grimace, lying onto his side with his arms stretched out, and a woman with long black hair not too far away who lay crumpled on her stomach in a pool of blood. “Are they dead?” They weren’t moving, so they were probably dead or asleep. Eren hoped they were dead since he had never seen real dead people before.  
  
“Eren!” His father snatched at him, picked him up and carried him away from the door. “Don’t look at that! Stay here”! He gave him a shake as he yelled. “Don’t look at that, okay!” He gave him another shake. “I need to… to check on them!” His father shoved the leather satchel into his arms before hurrying back into house. Eren stood outside in the chilly air, surrounded by the tall trees with their changing leaves and scowled at the dark doorway. Why did his father have to treat him like a baby? The blood didn’t scare him – he looked through his father’s medical books all the time, even though he wasn’t supposed to be in his father’s office. There was so little to do when he was stuck at home every day, other than play his games, study with his mother and help her with things like shopping, cleaning and cooking. It was fun, going through his father’s things, to listen in when his father talked about what happened at work – even though his mother complained that the stories were too ‘gory’ and ‘unsuitable for a child’. He didn’t care the people who died, or were too sick to live long, or any of that- 

His father came out of the small house cursing under his breath. “I can’t find Mikasa anywhere, and it looks as if those sick animals did something to cut the phone cable before they attacked.”

He grabbed at the satchel and rummaged through it for a few seconds before pulling out his phone. A frown formed on his face then he shoved the phone into the pocket of his brown coat in disgust. “I’m not getting a signal at all, dammit.” He continued to frown as he stared at Eren for several seconds, his brows growing more furrowed the entire time, and then glanced over his shoulder at the house.  

Eren took a step back when his father went down on one knee in front of him and grasped him by the shoulders, afraid that he’d gotten in trouble somehow. “Eren, listen to me.” He was given a gentle shake as if for emphasis. “I need to go find some help so the police know what’s going on and can save Mikasa, but I need to move fast. Also, there’s a chance that Mikasa might be hiding and will come back here, yes?” He waited for Eren to nod in understanding. “So I want you to stay here – it should be safe now, but hide in the bushes and don’t come out until you see me, okay?” 

“Okay.” Eren looked back at the house. “Dad, did animals really do this?”  

“Monsters did this. Monsters who look like men.” His father released him and stood up. “I have to go now. Don’t forget what I said about hiding.” He handed Eren back his satchel. “Keep this safe for me.”  
  
“But if it’s monsters, then they would-“  
  
“Stay hidden!” His father didn’t bother to listen to him, he just began to jog back down the trail the way they had come. Eren stared after him with growing anger for a few seconds before moving off of the path. Why didn’t his father ever listen to him? If his mother was here, she would listen to him, would stand there with that tender smile on her pretty face while he told her about the haunted house, which *surely* would be the first place where monsters would think to hide, wouldn’t it?  But as always, Eren’s father was always in a hurry or was busy and just wanted him to be good and quiet and not get in the way. That was, when he even was at home. 

Eren opened the silver clasp on the leather satchel and dug through its contents, pushing aside the stethoscope and other odd instruments, the packets of gauze and bandages. Toward the bottom was a long slender case of hardened leather which he pulled out, smiling as he opened the tiny metal hook; inside were several shiny scalpels that his father always yelled at him to never touch, to leave alone because they were so sharp. He closed the case and then the satchel, which he hid behind a large chrysanthemum bush that was planted near the house’s front door. 

Tucking the case into the right pocket of his coat, he began to hurry down the path, his sneakers crunching on the small stones beneath. What had the one post said about the haunted house? Wasn’t it west of the lake? Shouldn’t he be able to see towers of the big church if he headed in the right direction? He continued to run in what he thought was the proper direction, veering off on a rougher path where the lower branches of the trees brushed against him, and smiled when he saw the dark grey towers loom in the distance. His right hand pressed against the case to make sure it didn’t fall out while he ran, he continued along the path and refused to be frightened by the sounds of leaves rustling, birds calling and the occasional rough cough of some unknown animal. 

He passed an old, rusted hunk of oblong metal and knew he was on the correct path so began to slow down, to move quieter. Further along he found a pink slipper, something that a girl would wear, which he left lying there. The path curved after that, and once around the bend he came across a stone cottage. Pausing near a tree, he opened the leather case to pull out one of the sharp blades and held it tight in his right hand. Monsters, his father had told him. Bad men. His mother said never to hurt ladies. That had been a lady back there, right? And that slipper belong to a little girl, probably Mikasa. Then it was all right that he stop these bad men, these monsters. The knife was small, but it was sharp, and Eren’s father always said that a job could be done with the right tools. He remembered the story from the other day, about how the ‘drunken fool’ had ‘bled out’ from just being injured in the thigh, had remembered seeing the pictures of all those red lines in those books with the human body. He knew what to do. 

*******

Mikasa shivered as she lay on the cold stone floor, her hands tied behind her and scraps of her own dress wrapped around her eyes as a blindfold. A dress her mother had made for her, sewing together the fabric they’d picked out, teaching her how to embroider the flowers and elaborate knot-work. Her mother- 

She choked back a sob when she thought of her mother, fighting against the three strangers who had showed up at their home, who had smiled as they killed her father… her daddy…. She tucked her face against the hard floor, grateful for the spike of pain from where she’d been struck on the mouth, because that pain was so much better than what she felt inside of her. Daddy… Momma… 

Her breath caught when she felt a hard toe nudge her in the side. “Be quiet! I don’t want to hear your whining! Fuck, should we gag her or something?” 

“Leave the little bitch alone for now. She’s being pretty good for a half Chink.” 

“I thought Kre-“ 

There were sounds of scuffling and flesh being struck, and then someone cried out in pain. “No names, you moron,” the deeper voice berated the others.  
  
“All right! It’s not like the little half-breed bitch is going to get to talk, right? I mean, isn’t K- aren’t we going to make an example out of her?” 

“We were supposed to do that with her Chink mother, you psychotic little shit, but you messed that all up.” 

“The cunt came after me with a knife, what was I supposed to do! I’m not about to let some filthy Asian whore stab me!” 

Mikasa forced back another sob and curled up as much as she could with her hands tied behind her back and her body sore from being punched as the men argued, hoping that they would just forget about her. Images of her father falling to the floor, his chest covered in blood, of her mother screaming as she charged at the strangers filled her head. Her mother had been so brave – why couldn’t she have run like she’d been told to do, or to help fight them as well? All Mikasa had done was just stand there while they’d killed her parents. 

“- go try the radio in the truck to see if they’ve heard anything yet. Damn forest, what happened to the communication towers? 

“Find out how much longer we have to be here, sitting on our asses!” 

There was the sound of laughter and the stomping of boots, followed by the door closing. Mikasa shivered as a draft blew past her, wishing that she were still home, wishing that her father could come to rescue her, wishing- 

Footsteps approached, but instead of another harsh nudge to her side, there was the tug of clothes and then a cold hand shoved beneath her dress. “Hey, you want to entertain us? It’ll be good practice for what’s in store for you.” The hand gave her thigh a painful squeeze. 

“Oi! Don’t touch her!” 

“Come on, I’m bored! Besides, it’s just what’s gonna happen when we hand her over to Kr- to those Russian bastards.” 

“Yeah, and they’ll pay more for her if she’s still intact. Now back off, you pathetic asshole.” There was a grunting sound as the hand was wrenched from Mikasa’s thigh. Fresh tears flowed from her eyes yet she refused to cry out, to let them know how much they frightened her. This was all some horrid nightmare and any moment now, her mother would wake her up. Any moment now…. 

There was more shoving sounds and angry muttering while she prayed for her mother to come for her, but it moved away. She struggled against the rope that held her hands tied, her wrists already raw and bleeding, the cloth tied around her face soaked with her tears. The right side of her body was becoming numb from lying on it for so long. 

The sudden knocking sound at the door almost startled another cry out of her, and one of the men let out a curse. There was more muttering from them as the knocking continued, something about ‘get rid of them’, and a few seconds later one of them began to walk, their boots heavy against the stone floor. Mikasa thought back to earlier, to her father welcoming these monsters inside only to die and bit her lip as she wondered what new nightmare was about to begin again. 

“What do you want?” It sounded like largest of the three had answered the door, his voice deep and surly. “Eh? What are you doing here?” 

“Is… is Thomas and Die..Dieter here?” The new voice was young and confused, as if a boy around her age. “I-I looked all over for… for them.” 

There was a pause and then a loud sigh. “I think you’re lost, kid. Let me take you back to the main path, I’m sure your friends are waiting for you there.” 

“Th-thank you.” Mikasa heard a sniffling sound and then suddenly there was a piercing shriek. She could hear the other man stumble to his feet and call out as something heavy fell to the floor near her. 

“Seb? Sebastian? What’s wrong-“ 

There was a high-pitched shout of rage and more yelling, followed by the sounds of repeated impacts. Something warm and wet touched Mikasa’s legs, causing her to flinch away, and she began to pant, to wish that she could see what was going on despite the fact that it sounded horrible, whatever was happening. It was as if a wild animal had gotten into the deserted house, was snarling and growling as the thuds continued, as the faint sobs by her faded away, as the other man cursed and cried out, bumped into something and sent it scraping against the stone floor, only to crash down moments later. 

She could hear a harsh panting sound for several seconds, followed by the tread of light footsteps through something wet. When something brushed against her bare legs, she flinched, but the following gentle touch was warm if sticky. “It’s all right. You’re Mikasa, right? It’s okay.” It sounded like the boy who had come to the door, his voice now raspy. He placed something cold against her hands, and she gasped when the rope was pulled tight. It hurt for a few seconds, until she realized that the rope was being cut. 

She was pulled upright once her hands were freed, her hands tingling with pins and needles as they fell to her sides. “You’re okay now,” he repeated as he tugged off the blindfold. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the light, to make out his face; she didn’t recognize him, this boy with the messy dark brown hair and beautiful deep green eyes, but she was so grateful then that she wanted to hug him and not let go. She was about to do that when she noticed the pool of blood around her and the two bodies collapsed on the floor. 

The boy made a slight motion, as if shrugging. “It’s all right, they deserved that. Now let’s go.” He held out his right hand, which was covered with blood and smiled.  
  
Two bodies. “No… no, there’s one more of-“ she didn’t have a chance to finish her warning when there was the sound of a door creaking behind them, of heavy footsteps, and she looked up to see the third one of her parents’ killers standing there in shook. The boy looked up, too, then went reaching for the tiny knife he’d used to cut Mikasa’s hands free, but the monster was faster. 

“You little shit! Did you do this? I’ll kill you!” He held the boy up in the air by the throat, his face red with rage as he slowly throttled him. Mikasa stood there paralyzed with fear while images of her mother and father dying flashed through her. No, not again….

“Fight.” 

The boy’s voice was rough and cracked as he forced the word out past the hands choking him, but it shook her free of the awful memory. She looked up to find him staring down at her, his hands scratching at the grip that was slowly killing him.

“Figh-ght… to… live…” 

She continued to stare up at him as his face darkened and his beautiful eyes became bloodshot. As he gasped for air, the loud noise shook her free from her paralysis, enabled her to move. She glanced around and at first could only find the tiny knife that he had used – until she noticed one of the large blades that the men had stabbed into her father lying on the floor, not far from the knocked-over table. She snatched it up and then became still again as she wondered what was she supposed to do now?  
  
Staring at the back of the man who held the brave boy up in the air, she tried to force herself to take a step forward. The man’s back seemed too broad, so tall. Could she really do this? How could she do this? As she clenched the knife’s handle, images flashed through her mind: her father’s face as he was stabbed, her mother’s eyes as she pleaded with Mikasa first to run, then as she threw herself at the men who had invaded their home. That was followed by the sight of a dead rabbit being eaten by ants, the pheasant that her father had brought home, its beautiful plumage before it was plucked, the butterfly trapped in the spider’s web…. 

Reminded of the inherent struggle of life, she focused her gaze on the attacker’s back and poured all of her strength in driving the blade into it, racing forward with speed and intent. The knife sunk in so easily and deeply, the tip angled upward as she strove for his heart. He let out a roar as it pierced his body, his arms flailing and the boy dropping to the ground, gasping and wheezing for air. The man managed to spin partially around before his knees gave out and he fell face-first onto the floor.

Mikasa stared at him for several seconds, before the coughs and gasps of the boy reminded her of his presence. She shook herself, hands rising to rub at her cold and aching arms, and gasped herself when she felt the warm stickiness soak into the thin sleeves of her dress – blood, there was blood on her hands. It was from the man, who was lying in a spreading pool of it. More blood also soaked the skirt of her dress, the white and yellow material stained with it and dirt.

A soft touch to her left arm made her cry out and cringe, but it was just the boy. “Are there more of them?” His voice was rough and his throat was bruised, but he otherwise appeared to be all right. Standing this close to her, Mikasa noticed that his eyes weren’t just green, that they were a bit blue as well, like the stones in the one necklace that her mother sometimes wore. She choked back a sob as she thought about her parents.

“N-no.” She rubbed at her nose with the sleeve of her ruined dress. “That’s all of them.” She looked at their slumped bodies and wished that their deaths had been more painful, that they had suffered longer. “Thank you.” At least this boy had made sure that they’d paid for what they’d done to her parents.

“You’re welcome.” He smiled at her, the expression the first good thing she’d seen since her father had gone to open the door. “Oh! I’m Eren.” He was still smiling as he held out his blood-stained hand. “Eren Jaeger. My dad is Dr. Jaeger, we were visiting when….” A slight blush colored his cheeks. “Uhm, I’m sorry about your parents.”

Hearing someone else talk about her parents brought a rush of tears to Mikasa’s eyes, a flood that she couldn’t hold back. Eren’s expression became panicked as she sobbed, and he patted down his pockets until he could hand over a couple of crumbled tissues, which she accepted with a shaky nod. He left her after that and she cried in peace, standing in a filthy, strange house while surrounded by the bodies of the men who killed her family.

Eren returned after a couple of minutes, startling her by draping a scratchy blanket over her shoulders. “I found this in the truck.” He stood about a foot away, an uneasy look on his face. “My dad went to get the police, so they’ll probably be here soon.” He shifted back and forth on his feet a few times. “Oh, I found this, too.” He handed over her missing slipper.

“Thank you.” It seemed as if she was constantly thanking him. “Ah, I’m Mikasa. Mikasa Ackerman.” Had she properly introduced herself before then? Her father had always said that introductions are important. Tears threatened to spring forth again but she forced them back.

Perhaps it had been silly to tell him her name when Eren already knew it, but he smiled just then as if given a gift. “It’s nice to meet you, Mikasa.” He seemed about to say something else but shook his head instead. “Let’s go outside, it’s starting to smell in here.”

She followed him out of the awful place, and was stunned to see that the sun was just beginning to set – it felt as if it had been so long ago that she sat down at the table with her mother to begin preparing supper. Eren sat down on the stone landing that served as the abandoned building’s front stoop, so she joined him as well, grateful for the warmth and safety that his small body provided. Neither of them said anything, they merely sat beside each other as if that was enough; for Mikasa, it was. She felt so drained just then, so cut off from everything but Eren’s warmth.

The sky had darkened a little more when she heard the harsh blare of a siren break the wonderful stillness of the forest and saw the flash of lights scatter through the pillars of the trees. Eren tensed beside her yet reached over to give her hand a quick squeeze, then waited with her for the police to approach. The path leading to the abandoned house wasn’t the biggest, yet soon a police car similar to the hatchback that Mikasa’s father drove pulled into the clearing and stopped. Mikasa flinched when the headlights flashed in her eyes.

There was the sound of a door opening and then quickly slamming shut. “Eren? Eren! My god, we’ve been looking everywhere for you! Is that Mikasa?” The man who was shouting ran toward them, while Eren sighed and slowly stood to his feet. Mikasa rose as well, not wanting to be parted from the boy. “Are you two all right?” Farther away, the person at the car spoke something into the radio.

“We’re fine, Dad.” Eren barely got the words out before he was picked up and hugged, and Mikasa thought she saw tears on Dr. Jaeger’s face. The man held his son tightly for several seconds before setting him down.

“We’ll talk later about you running off,” he told Eren before he turned toward Mikasa. He hesitated for a moment before giving her a gentle smile. “Now, how are you?” He reached out to tuck back a lock of hair that had fallen onto her face, his smile turning into a frown when she flinched from his touch. “It looks as if you’ve been hurt. Are you injured anywhere else?” His hand reached for the blanket.

“I- I’m fine,” she told him, but in her haste to avoid his touch, the blanket had slipped from her shoulder and fell open. She could tell when he saw the bloodstains because of the sudden hiss of breath. “It’s not mine.”

“She’s safe now.” Eren fussed with his scarf, which Mikasa knew hid the bruises on his neck. “We took care of the bad men.”

“What?” Dr. Jaeger looked away from Mikasa, his face paling when he stared at his son. Mikasa didn’t know what caused him to swear like that, until he snatched at Eren’s hands, which were still flaked with dried blood. “What did you do?”

Eren gazed up at his father, his dark brows drawn together as if he was puzzled. “I helped save Mikasa, that’s all. They were bad men, you said so yourself.”

Not wanting Eren to be in trouble, Mikasa reached out to tug on Dr. Jaeger’s coat. “I helped, too,” she admitted, her voice quiet. “They killed Momma and Dad.”

Dr. Jaeger looked back and forth between her and Eren several times before cursing under his breath and rushing into the house. There was silence for about a minute, and then he called out, which caused the police officer to go running into the house as well. It sounded like more shouting after that.

Eren came over to hug Mikasa and urge her away from the door. “Grown-ups are weird.” He seemed confused and a little angry.

She nodded in agreement as she leaned against him, grateful for his support and warmth. Her family was gone, but Eren was here, was holding her close while she closed her eyes and just let the emptiness wash through her. She felt so tired, so tired and cold, and so apart from the world. The only thing keeping her tied to anything just then was Eren.

They stood off to the side while the police officer ran back to his car and then returned to the house, and soon more cars arrived. People were talking and rushing about, but it seemed to happen from a distance, didn’t seem to matter to Mikasa. She just stood there with Eren during the chaos and let it happened.

The occasional words sunk in, such as ‘psych ward’, ‘therapy’, and ‘child services’. She thought that they might be talking about her, though she thought they also mentioned Eren. At several points she heard Dr. Jaeger’s raised voice. Yet throughout it all, Eren stayed by her side, until his father finally came over to them.

“Eren? I need to speak to you.” When the boy hesitated, the doctor cleared his throat. “Come here, son.”  
  
Eren huffed as if annoyed and let go of Mikasa. “Yes?” He only stepped a few feet away.

“Do you understand what you did here tonight?” Dr. Jaeger sounded very upset. “That you… that you ended the lives of three men?”

Eren toed the dirt in front of him with his right foot yet continued to look up at his father. “They were bad men and would have hurt Mikasa. I had to do it, Dad.”

“You were to wait at the house like I told you so I could-“

“You were late!” Eren snapped, his small body tense with anger and his eyes bright in his dirt-smeared face. “I tried to tell you but you didn’t hear me. You never listen to me! All I did was save Mikasa!”

Dr. Jaeger looked ready to yell back for a few seconds until he sighed, his large hand rising to rub at his face. “Eren… you could have been killed. Both of you could have been killed.” His deep voice was gruff as he spoke the words. “As it is, they’re going to want you to take more therapy, after this.” He gazed at Mikasa after his hand dropped to his side. “Both of you. I imagine Mikasa will start as soon as Child Services-“

“No!” Eren’s high voice cracked as he shouted. “She’s not going anywhere! She’s coming with us!” He turned to face her. “You want to come home with us, right?”

Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought about leaving Eren, the person who had saved her. “I don’t have a home anymore.” She shivered from the cold, not just outside in the autumn night air but inside as well. Eren rushed forward, his hands busy removing the scarf from his bruised neck and to wrap it around her own; it was so warm, its softness soaked in the heat of his body. She paused to breathe in his scent and to let its heat diffuse into her chilled skin. “Please, I’d like to go home with you,” she admitted.

Dr. Jaeger started when he saw the bruises on his son’s neck, but Eren gazed back in defiance and motioned toward Mikasa. The man looked back and forth between the two of them several times before letting out a long sigh, then approached Mikasa and went down on one knee before her. She did her best not to cringe at his nearness. “Mikasa, would you really like to live with us?”

She nodded, too overwhelmed at the moment to trust her voice. “Then I’ll go talk to Child Services and do what I can.” He offered her a tender smile. “I’m sure my wife will love to have another young lady in the house, she’s often complained about being outnumbered.” When he stood to his feet, Eren slowly approached him and gave him a quick hug. He leaned down to give his son a kiss on the top of his head.

Eren watched his father leave before coming to stand at Mikasa’s side. When she made to return to him his scarf, he smiled and shook his head. “It’s yours now.”

Mikasa felt her cheeks warm at the offer of the simple gift and buried her face in the soft fabric. “Thank you,” she murmured.

He reached for and clasped her hand in his. “Dad will get them to let you come home with us – he’s really good at that stuff. We’ll be leaving soon.”

Mikasa squeezed his hand, unwilling to let it go.

*******

Mikasa wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand and licked it clean before she tended to the drained Malform, a slight grimace on her face as she twisted its head free with savage force. Moving away as its shriveled body began to disintegrate, she wondered if Eren had finished feeding yet, anxious over the fact that they had to hunt apart while in cities. How would it be when the ‘domes’ were completed? Everyone they talked to appeared eager to move inside the enclosed cities despite the infrastructure limitations she’d heard about, to at least get away from the solar radiation. She thought they were being unrealistic in hoping to keep out the Malform, especially after learning the truth about vampires-

Shaking her head, Mikasa headed toward a more active part of the city, leaving behind the dark, deserted streets with their broken lights and empty buildings. What would happen to this city? Would Samara disappear like so many other cities already had after the initial collapse? Would it become a dome, its streets bulldozed into rubble so artificial walls and ceilings could encase new structures?

She gazed about her at the stone and concrete buildings, many of them in need of repairs, and realized that so much would soon change. They already saw so many ruins, her and Eren, when they traveled about, and now many of the remaining cities would be torn down as humanity tried in vain to seal themselves off from the monsters in the dark. There was a pain inside of her chest as she tucked the scarf higher against her face. When would they learn that it never really worked, hiding from monsters?

A few of the people she passed along the way called out offers for her to join them, some out of kindness for a ‘young woman’ being out alone and some rather salacious in nature, all of which she ignored. She huddled in her dark grey jacket as if cold and was grateful for the presence of the Military Police on patrol, the recently reformed organization doing its best to restore order in the cities. Doing what she could to blend in, she let her black leather boots scuff along the cobblestone streets and acted as if she were merely a teenager out on a stroll; she even stopped to buy a few pieces of fried sweet pastry from a roadside seller. She managed to eat a few bites of one along the way to Galina’s apartment.

Ever since running into the trio and finding out about vampires, Mikasa and Eren were more careful about revealing the truth of themselves to people. They were rather certain that they could recognize vampires by their scent, but that didn’t mean that the vampires didn’t have human associates – there was still so much they didn’t know about the race. It was decided that their best course of action was extreme caution, especially since it was clear that the bastards were after them – Eren in particular. Mikasa’s fists clenched in anger when she remembered the way that Annie had spoken her brother’s name, how Bertolt and Reiner had paid Eren such close attention. The only thing they could think of that might deserve the vampire’s ‘attention’ like that was the fact that Eren had been ‘turned’ into… whatever he was by his own father, and had turned Mikasa as well.

So they hadn’t told Galina Zaytsev who they were, just that they were interested in her research on Grisha Jaeger and had some information they could share. The woman was proving very helpful in providing answers that Mikasa and Eren hadn’t known about their father. Perhaps some of those answers might help them figure out what they were and why the vampires were so interested in them.

Mikasa ran up the stairs to the apartment, the bag of fried dough clutched in her hand. Another resident hurried down at the same time, brushing a little too close to her, which put her on edge. She fought the urge to bare her fangs at the stranger’s proximity and continued up the worn steps, grateful for her enhanced vision which allowed her to see even in the dim light of the stairwell. Despite reaching the floor of Galina’s apartment, she still felt unsettled and used the key that her new friend had given her to go inside. “Galina? Yuliya? I brought some pastries. Has Eren returned yet?” No one answered her, neither Galina nor the researcher’s young daughter.

Tugging down the scarf, Mikasa took a deep breath and dropped the bag as she was immediately hit with the scent of blood – it made her fangs descend and her claws to elongate as the brightly painted walls of the apartment faded to grey. Then she realized what she had failed to recognize before, what it really was that had put her on guard, that faint hint of ‘otherness’, of *vampire*.

“Galina!” She dashed into the apartment, through the small foyer and into the living room filled with bookshelves, children’s toys, a couch and a large desk. Sprawled out on the floor was Galina, her brown sweater soaked in blood and her blue eyes glassy in death. Her throat had been torn out, the obvious cause of the large pool of blood in which she lay – so much blood that whoever had done this to her hadn’t fed much. No, they hadn’t fed, but judging from the bruises on Galina’s face, her twisted and bloody fingers, the bedraggled strands of light brown hair fallen out of her normally neat braid, they had treated her roughly before her death.

Part of Mikasa screamed at her to leave, to go find Eren and ensure that he was safe, but she continued further into the apartment, haunted by the memory of another mother lying so lifeless on the floor. “Yuliya? Are you here?” Had they taken the child? Why would they be interested in a child? Surely they wouldn’t harm her. Mikasa followed a faint trail of blood, hoping that she was wrong, and pushed open the door leading to Yuliya’s bedroom.

A whimper escaped her when she saw the tiny crumpled body lying on the bloody bed, half covered in the purple and white bedspread as if hiding. Rushing forward to the bed, Mikasa gasped when she heard a shuddering breath and realized that the child was still alive. She flung back the bedspread and found the girl covered in bites – the oozing wounds were all over her neck, her shoulders and her arms. Had the vampires used the girl to break Galina? How could they do that to a child? “Hold on, you’ll be okay,” Mikasa told her as she stroked back the damp hair falling onto Yuliya’s face, so much like the poor child’s mother. “It’ll be all right.” Yet even as she spoke, the child’s heartbeat faltered.

What was she to do? She could sense the child growing weaker with each passing moment, so there was no time to hope that medical help could arrive and save her. There were also so many bites, would help even be enough to keep her from turning? Mikasa stared at the young girl and hated the thought of her dying, of the vampires taking away another innocent. She also felt immense guilt – wasn’t this in part her own fault?

Moving before she thought any more on what she was doing, she bent down and bit into Yuliya’s neck, the poor child too far gone to even flinch from the new pain. Eren had said that he had drained Mikasa dry when she had been attacked, so this should work. Would it work? All she could do was try it, to hope that Yuliya would live and not hate Mikasa for what she’d soon become.

Human blood was so different from Malform – it wasn’t as thick, wasn’t as potent or rich. Mikasa forced herself to swallow it down, though there wasn’t that much left in the little girl. After a minute or two, Yuliya shuddered in her arms and her heart stopped beating. A tear ran down Mikasa’s face as she lay the child down on her bed and began to wipe away the blood while she waited to see if she woke up.

How long had it taken for Mikasa to awaken, back at that hospital? Hadn’t Eren said something about her wounds healing? His had – she had watched while smoke had formed and slowly his arm and leg had regrown, during that awful hour or two when she’d thought that he might be dead. Yet Yuliya remained unchanged.

Mikasa had wrapped her arms around herself and begun to rock back and forth when a familiar scent reached her senses. She looked behind her to find Eren standing in the doorway to the room, his blue jacket torn and his hair disheveled more than usual, a solemn expression on his face. “You need to do something about her, she’s going to turn any minute now.”

“Eren!” She jumped up to go hug him, relieved that he was all right. “What happened? Are you-“  
  
He gave her a quick hug and then gently pushed her aside. “Yuliya first. I can do it if you can’t.” He approached the bed, his expression growing more grim with each step. “You don’t have to watch,” he told her as he grasped the girl’s head.

“What?” It occurred to Mikasa what he meant to do. “But… I tried to… what you did to me.”

“It’s not working, she’s about to become a Malform.” Eren was swift about it, and Yuliya was small: when he was done, he covered her body with the bloodstained bedspread. “I took care of Galina as well.” His motions were slow when he moved from the bed, as if he were exhausted.

Mikasa had been so focused on Yuliya that she’d forgotten about the girl’s mother. “I-I’m sorry.”

He gave her a tired grin before he returned to her side for another hug, this one longer than the previous as if he needed the comfort. “I know.”

She felt the tears in his coat as she hugged him back and caught a hint of vampire clinging to the material. “What happened? Are you all right?”

“We need to get moving. Find what you can of Galina’s research.” He gave her another gentle shove in the direction of the living room. “I think whoever did this tracked me down while I was hunting, but I’m not sure if he was alone.”

The vampire had probably tortured Galina about Eren and Mikasa, but Mikasa couldn’t blame the woman if they used her daughter against her. She held onto Eren’s hand as they returned to the living room, only letting go of it there. “He’s not a problem anymore?” She didn’t think so, not if Eren was here, but if that wasn’t the case, then she’d go out hunting.

This time Eren’s smile contained a sharp, feral edge. “Yes,” was all he said, but the way his eyes glowed just then was all the reassurance she needed.

“Good.” Mikasa went over to the desk to gather up whatever hard drives, disks and other material she could find, and pushed aside the grief and guilt she felt to be dealt with later. What mattered just then was that Eren was alive and an enemy neutralized. They would have to be more careful from now on, have to rely on others even less. This just proved to them how little they could trust other people – not just for their sake, but for the sake of others. In the end, it really was just her and Eren.

*******

Biting back on a growl as he pushed aside some idiots just *standing* there, Eren held on tight to Mikasa’s hand as he wove through the crowd, his head ducked low and his eyes downcast. Damn domes and their bland architecture – everything looked the same, smelled the same, even felt the same, being built with the same damn materials. He thought that they might have lost Bertolt a couple of blocks back, but that would only be a temporary reprieve since the bastard would only retreat long enough to get the other two and return that much stronger.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Mikasa asked, her voice pitched low enough that only he would hear.

“Not really, just trying to get us away from the crowd and someplace quieter.” He kept dodging through the busy streets while looking for a suitable hiding spot, and began to head toward the smaller side paths. That should lead them to the back alleys, away from the main traffic and where the direct light was, and then they could figure out their next step.

“We’re going to need to get out of here.” Eren flipped up the hood of his light grey sweatshirt as they hurried along, his hands clenched into fists to hide his claws.

“Yes, but I can’t imagine that they’re leaving our way out unguarded.” Mikasa kept pace at his side, her legs longer than his thanks to that extra couple of inches, and pulled up the hood of her green jacket as well. “We might have to chance messing with the seal.”

“At least it’s rough terrain out there, so they won’t want to mess with us during the day.” If they had to get caught by the trio, the Marrakesh dome was one of the better places, Eren supposed. Though it would mean they’d be scrambling for transportation themselves, considering the severe restriction on air transportation. Hopefully there would be a smuggler out there with a boat and a thing for younger guys….

“Let’s worry about getting out of here first,” Mikasa chided, as if reading his thoughts. She motioned down a quiet side street before picking up speed, leaving Eren to hurry after her.

They darted down an alley that was much less occupied and illuminated than the previous streets, the beige cement walls stretching above them several meters without any windows. This was the type of area where they could usually find Malform, as there was normally a person or two strolling around for bait but not often enough to scare away the undead predators. Sniffing the air to see if he could sense any of the creatures, Eren thought he picked up the scent of something….

They came around the bend and it washed over them, the scent of blood and otherness, and not more than a few feet away stood what looked to be a young woman about Mikasa’s age with skin a little darker than Eren’s, with black hair pulled back in a ponytail and brown eyes. She leaned away from the dazed blond man upon whom she’d been feeding and cursed. “Ever hear of privacy?”

“Great, another fucking vampire,” Eren snarled as he launched himself forward. Were the trio working with others to catch them? That certainly was new and *not* a good thing.

“Eh? You know- heh!” The strange vampire just barely managed to dodge the kick to her head, her eyes glowing red and claws held out. “Wait! I know about you two!” She blocked another kick from Eren, pushing his leg aside with an annoyed hiss. “Stop fighting! I’m not your enemy!”

“Yeah, right, I bet you just wanna fuck, too.” He slashed at her throat and snarled when she danced back out of the way, the blow having sliced open her shoulder instead. “Not falling for that again.”

“Is that how- dammit, stop fighting!” She lashed out with her left fist and made him step back to avoid being hit, but Mikasa was there to take his spot even as he retreated. “I’m not like the-oomph!”

Mikasa managed to get beneath the vampire’s reach and slammed her into the wall, but oddly enough merely kept her pressed face-first against the hard surface instead of going in for the kill. “What are you waiting for? Kill her,” Eren hissed.

“In a minute, I want some answers first since she’s not attacking.” Mikasa tightened her hold on the vampire’s arms, which she had twisted back and immobilized, and caused the stranger to hiss. “Why are you trying to trick us?” Her eyes glowed and her fangs were out, a clear sign that this vampire’s strange behavior bothered her.

The vampire managed a mocking laugh despite her precarious position. “Because it’s not a fucking trick! You think I’m trying to lose my head here?” She pushed back a little so she could turn her face in Eren’s direction. “Dammit, if you two are here then that means this dome is crawling with those old bastards.” Her face wrinkled in pain when Mikasa twisted her arms a little more. “Hey, ease up there a bit.”

“What do you know about us?” When the vampire was quiet, Mikasa repeated the question again, using a bit more force.

“I said to ease the fuck up,” the vampire spat out as she did her best to look over her shoulder at Mikasa. “You’re a fucking ray of sunshine, you know that?” When Mikasa glared at her, she rolled her eyes and tilted her head back in Eren’s direction. “Look, you two aren’t the only ones those bastards are hunting down, all right? I used to be number one on their shit list until you came along.” She was quiet for a few seconds. “Thanks for that.”

Eren wasn’t buying this at all. He crossed his arms over his chest and jerked his chin in the direction of the poor idiot passed out from blood loss a few feet away. “Sure you were – why would they chase after a fellow vampire?” This was a big waste of their time, they needed to get as far away from where Bertolt had seen them.

“Because they blame me for something.” The vampire closed her eyes for a moment. “It’ll take too long to explain, and we don’t have the time if you’re running. Let me guess, you two just got spotted, right? Was it Annie and her boys or one of the others?” When Eren and Mikasa didn’t say anything but Mikasa tightened her hold on the vampire’s arms, the vampire grinned. “Yeah, I thought so. How are you going to get out of here?”

“It doesn’t matter to you,” Mikasa told her, pinning her against the wall as she prepared to immobilize the bitch. Eren stepped closer so he could help her take off the head and be done.

“Oh yeah? What if I told you that I knew a way to get us all out of here, without using the tunnel entrance that I’m sure they’re now watching?” The vampire’s grin grew stronger when Mikasa hesitated. “The name’s Ymir, by the by.”

“Eren…”

He glanced at his sister and frowned when he noticed her expression. “You seriously think we can trust her?” Mikasa was the one advocating this? Usually it was him who came up with the bad ideas – he didn’t want to think about what happened the few times when Mikasa did. It usually meant him regrowing a limb or two.

“She wasn’t really trying to fight you before.” Mikasa shrugged, which caused her scarf to coil loosely around her shoulders. “If it’s a trap, we’ll kill her at the first obvious sign of betrayal.”

If it wasn’t too late then – his left arm began to itch, as if he could feel it regrowing already. Eren stared at the vampire – Ymir – and tried to figure a way out of the situation. They were pretty much screwed just then, so they might as well take a chance; that was probably Mikasa’s line of reason. “What’s up with this alternate route out?”

That seemed to act as a signal to Mikasa for her to release Ymir. The vampire groaned as her arms were freed and took a few seconds to straighten her back and neck as if she had gotten some kinks in them. “Well, think of it as a detour to the tunnel – it’ll sneak us into it about halfway in through an alternate entrance. That should get past where the others are – well, that and a bit of luck.”

Eren felt like doing a bit of groaning himself. Yep, might as well say goodbye to a hand and maybe a foot right now. “Great, I can’t possibly imagine what could go wrong here.”

“Relax, it’s how I snuck into the dome in the first place, so it should work in sneaking us out. After that, you two are on your own.” Ymir tugged her baggy black sweater into place and nodded at the wall. “It’ll probably be best if we do a little climbing and take to the roofs, avoid being seen as much as possible.”

“I guess so.” Eren held up his claws and was about to start climbing when he remembered the guy a few feet away. “Uhm, what about your snack?” He glanced back at the unconscious blond.

“Eh, he’ll be fine, I don’t drain ‘em that much. He’ll wake up and think he got mugged or something.” Ymir didn’t act too concerned about her victim, and it wasn’t as if Eren could be too bothered at the moment considering that he had several vampires after his ass. Mikasa shrugged to show that she wasn’t particularly bothered, either. “Now, we going?”

“Yeah. Just remember – try anything funny and you’ll lose your head so fast you won’t know which of us took it.” Eren grimaced internally at the cheesy threat, thinking that he much preferred dealing with Malform than vampires – you didn’t have to *talk* to Malform, you just drained and killed them.

Ymir didn’t appear too cowed by the threat, either. “Yeah, yeah, I got it. You know what? Why don’t we kill the time it’ll take to reach the tunnel entrance by you telling me all about that ‘fucking’ you did, kiddo.” She grinned over her shoulder at him. “It was you and Annie’s gang, right? You go, you rebel, you!”

Maybe they could kill the annoying bitch after they escaped the dome. Eren bared his teeth at her while he struggled to control his temper, not helped in the slightest by the amusement he could sense radiating off of his sister. Just reach the tunnel, escape the dome and you’ll never have to see this Ymir person ever again, he promised himself.

*******

People were running about in a panic, screaming in fear as the Malform hunted them down with the ease of sharks swimming through a school of fish. Mikasa stilled for a moment, lost in the memories of the past, of times lost to mass destruction and death as the acrid stench of fear/blood/burning overwhelmed her – until Eren snatched at her left wrist and pulled her along.

“The seals have to be breached in this madness, we’ll leave through one of them,” he yelled over the din of cries and loud crashes. “The western one should be nearby!”

She nodded when the words sunk in; the tunnels would be too treacherous right now, since all of these Malform had to have come from somewhere. Had they been created by vampires? Were the ‘others’ down there waiting for Eren and her to attempt to flee? How had things gotten so out of hand? Mikasa gasped as they ran past the body of a Freedom Corps fighter lying in the street – they were everywhere once you paused to look, the familiar uniform of white and grey bloodied and tattered, its members having sacrificed their lives in a vain attempt to defeat the overwhelming tide of Malform. More would be on their way soon, but it would be too late for most of Klorva’s residents.

A newly turned Malform launched itself at Eren as they ran, making him release Mikasa’s hand as he fought it off with claws and a savage desperation. He only hesitated for a few seconds to sip from it before tearing off its head, aware of how they needed to escape as quickly as possible; if vampires were behind this attack, then they would be out hunting for the two of them. Mikasa managed to scare away a pack of Malform that had a family pinned in a doorway but could do little else for them, and had to hope that they could reach a safe haven before more of the undead happened upon them. There were just too many of the predators for her and Eren to save everyone. There were too many Malform, possibly too many vampires and too many people about for them to do much of anything than run. The hopelessness of the situation ate at her almost as much as all the death around them.

They were almost at the western exit/seal when there was a high-pitched cry for help. At first they continued to run, but the shouting continued, and Mikasa caught sight of an elderly man doing his best to fight off three Malform. He managed to fend off two of them with some sort of broken pole, but the third lashed out at him with its claws, prompting another shrill cry from the small figure that was huddled behind him.

She glanced over at her brother to see that he had noticed the two figures as well, and caught the grim look of determination on his face. As one, they changed direction toward the small group, Eren going for the two circling Malform and her leaping at the Malform that was attacking the old man. The creature had just ripped its claws along the man’s side when she pulled it away, using her own claws to tear deep into its spine to cripple it. Not far away, there were snarls followed by hisses and yelps as Eren took care of the other two, finishing quickly after Mikasa decapitated her prey.

The Malform destroyed, Mikasa approached the old man, who was kneeling on the ground, his white shirt soaked in blood and his bearded face covered in sweat. Despite his grievous wounds, he held on to the improvised staff with his right hand, his left arm draped around the small child huddled against his side and stared up at Mikasa and Eren. “You… what are you?” he asked, his deep voice cracking as he spoke but his gaze even.

Mikasa supposed that they must look a lot like monsters just then, with their eyes glowing and clawed hands dripping blood. “We’re not like them,” she tried to explain, about to fuss with her scarf but stopping just in time before she touched it with her bloody hands.

Eren stepped forward, busy wiping his hands on his jeans. “Come on, old man, we need to get you someplace where they’ll look at your side.” He tried to smile, but the expression was false enough that made it plain that he knew the wound was fatal. “Maybe that kid of yours can help.” He held out his hands, seemed to notice that the claws were still out, let out a slow breath and forced the claws to retreat. “It’s not safe outside.”

The old man stared intently at Eren for several seconds and then back at Mikasa. She did her best to smile as well. “Let us get you and the boy somewhere safe.” They could ill afford to spare the time, but at least they would have saved the child; they knew all too well what it was like, to live through this nightmare.

“You’re not... not like them?” The old man gasped in pain yet refused to move, to let go of the little boy.

“No, we’re not.” Mikasa glanced at Eren, hoping that her brother had an idea of how to hurry this along.

He tried to smile again, his face appearing so young just then. “Look, it’s not safe for you or the boy out here. We really should-“

The old man began to cough just then, blood flying from his lips. Beside him, the little boy cried out and clung to him, murmuring ‘pap-pap’ over and over again. The old man held him close with his one good arm, his eyes closed tight for several seconds, until he opened them and pressed a kiss against the top of the boy’s blond head. “It’ll be all right, Armin.” He looked back up at Mikasa and Eren, spots of blood staining his lips and grey-shot beard. “This is my grandson. Please, take care of him.”

Mikasa stared in shock at the old man. “Sir… we’ll get you somewhere-“

“No!” He seemed to struggle to stand up but couldn’t find the strength. “You helped us out, no one else would. You’re… you’re helping. Help me out some more. Take him.” He shuddered a little. “*Help* *me*.” Somehow, she thought that he didn’t say those words lightly.

Eren knelt down in front of the man. “You’re asking *us* that? After what we did?” He sounded incredulous, which was exactly how Mikasa felt just then.

“Yes.” The old man nodded, while at his side the little boy continued to cry. A wry grin twisted his bloody lips. “Who better to watch Armin in these days, no? I think God has listened to me, finally.”

A harsh scowl overtook Eren’s beautiful features. “God has nothing to do with us.” Yet he glanced back at Mikasa, his expression smoothing out into one that she recognized with ease; he thought that the man was crazy, thought that this whole situation was crazy, but he’d follow her lead. Her brother’s faith in her filled her with that bubbling sense of warmth, as always, and she almost nodded over that fact alone before giving the matter some serious thought. In the end, it was the fact that here was another orphan, another lost soul set adrift by violence and Malform that made her give in to the old man.

Eren sighed and rubbed at his face with his hands before running them through his hair. “All right, we’ll look after him.” He didn’t sound too pleased, but he managed to smile at the boy.

“Thank you.” The old man slumped forward, as if his strength was running out “Armin, I need you to listen to me.” He tugged the boy forward, and Mikasa finally got a good look at the child – he could only be a few years old, was small-boned and had blue eyes to match the blond hair. They would have to pass him off as a cousin or adopted sibling.

The old man whispered to the boy, and while she could hear what he said if she tried, she allowed him some peace to say his goodbyes. The boy cried even harder as the man spoke and shook his head, clearly upset, but the old man held firm. After a minute, the old man looked back at them. “Please, take him now.”

Eren bent down to grab the boy, who continued to cry and even kicked in resistance to being taken away from his grandfather. The struggling earned a grimace from Eren, but he didn’t reprimand the little boy.

Mikasa hesitated before leaving the old man. “You know that you’ll turn, don’t you?” She didn’t know if she should offer to prevent that or not.

“I don’t want him to see you doing such a thing to me,” the old man said. “It’s not a fate that I want, but best you leave with him now.”

She nodded once to show that she understood. “We’ll keep him safe,” she promised before turning to leave.

“That is all I can ask of you. But please, make him happy as well.”

Mikasa nodded again and then hurried after Eren. The boy, Armin, was still calling out for his ‘pap-pap’, his arms held out over Eren’s back as if he could reach the old man, his face covered with tears and snot. The expression on Eren’s face just then was one of extreme unhappiness, yet he stroked the boy’s bright hair as he jogged along the streets, eyes glowing and intent on any sign of danger.

“You’re feeding him,” he snapped as soon as she caught up with them.

“You’re the one who knows how to cook,” she pointed out as she adjusted her scarf.

“You… argh!” A slight smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I should have seen that one coming.”

“Yes, you should have.” She rushed forward to drive off an approaching Malform and then fell back to his side. “I suppose I’ll handle baths, then.”

“It’s the least you can do.” He glanced down at the kid – Armin – who was finally subsiding to quiet sobs, his small head resting on Eren’s shoulder. “This is going to make things more difficult until he grows up some.”

It certainly was. Yet she noticed that Eren was planning on what to do with Armin, not how to get rid of him. So difficult or not, they now had the added responsibility of raising a child for the next ten years or so. Considering everything else they’d done over the centuries, surely it couldn’t be that hard?

*******

 


	14. Unravel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, things should start speeding up here. And getting bloody (say it ain't so for SnK!!!). Also, this is where the whole pairing thing kicks into high gear, FINALLY!
> 
> HOWEVER, this is also where my weekly update schedule starts to get off-track, at least for a little bit (yeah, sorry). This weekend I'm at Yaoi-con (look for the Hange cosplayer! Or at least one of them!!! Wearing the 'nekojita' badge, naturally). I'll be spending part of the week finishing up my cosplay before heading out to SF. But yeah, it's going to eat into the writing time. And next month is a work trip to Germany.... But I'll try to keep the schedule as much as possible.
> 
> Once again, thanks so much for the kudos and whoever takes the time for comments!

*******

Levi could only stand there helplessly and stare at the three figures on the large bed with the white sheets, at the two faceless men who had Eren sandwiched between them and moaning in pleasure. The brat’s beautiful eyes were closed, his skin glistening with a sheen of sweat and strands of his dark hair clinging to his lovely face, to his slender neck and shoulders. That body, the body that Levi had felt beneath him as they trained, as they fought; so lean and lithe, gleamed in the room’s light, in contrast to the pale skin of the anonymous lovers who loomed over him. Their large hands pulled his hips this way and that, spread his long legs and roamed over that sun-kissed skin…

Levi *felt* it each time that Eren moaned, every time he begged for another touch, another stroke, another thrust. He felt a jolt through his body like an electrical surge when Eren opened his glowing golden eyes and looked over at him, his face contorted with passion as one of the other men loomed behind him and fucked him hard. Levi struggled to go over there, to pull Eren from the bed, to shove the man away hard enough to leave a bruise and could only watch impotently as the other faceless stranger grabbed Eren by his tousled hair to pull his face toward his erect cock. Eren lapped at it eagerly, his hands lifting to wrap around its base to hold it ready for his mouth. Both men thrust continuously into Eren, greedy hands grasping at him to hold him still, fingers tangled in dark hair or digging into his hips, rocking him back and forth as he groaned in pleasure, as he took them in, his burning eyes locked onto Levi – Levi who wanted nothing more to move, to yell at them to fuck off, to punch and hit and-

And then it was him on the bed, it was his hands digging into that firm, tan skin, his cock that was sinking into that delectable ass. If he thought that it was warm to sit near Eren, to feel the heat radiating *from* him, it was nothing like it felt to be *inside* of him, to feel it clench around him, to slide so tightly around his cock with each thrust in and out. He groaned in bliss as he sunk in deep, his head tossed back at the almost searing friction as he bottomed out. Rolling his head forward, he frowned when he stared down on tousled dark brown strands and pulled out quick, forcing a protesting squawk from Eren. A sly grin spread across his face as he grabbed hold of a long leg and used it to roll the brat over, revealing Eren’s flushed and furious face, those luminous eyes glaring back up at him. Sliding back in to that heat snatched the breath out of him, made him bite at his bottom lip while Eren arched up his back to meet his hips, and-

And the *fucking* comm went off, shattering the dream and wrenching him back to reality, where he sat up in bed, sheets twisted about his sweat-drenched body and cock so fucking hard it *hurt*. Levi sat there for a few seconds, fingers twisted in his hair as he tried to adjust to reality, to calm his frantically beating heart and over-sensitive nerves. As the damn comm continued to shrill at him, he slapped his hand on the unit to shut it up. “What the *fuck* do you want?” he snarled at the shitstain brain-dead enough to wake him up. “Fucking Malform better be fucking chewing on your damn spleen!”

There was silence on the line for a few seconds. “Uhm, Sweetie, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or what?” Hange actually sounded a bit subdued for once. “Did I bother you during your morning constitutional or something?

No, just during one hell of a realistic wet dream, featuring the damn *brat* of all people – not that Levi would admit it to Hange under the pain of death. “You woke me the fuck up, Shitty Glasses.”

“Oh.” There was another pause. “Oh! I’m sorry! You usually get by on such little sleep that I figured it was safe to call a bit earlier than is polite for most people. I just wanted to get together with you before breakfast so we could discuss the new training regime.”

Levi ran his fingers through his hair and stared down at his morning wood, which showed no damn sign of abating. Fucking brats with their damned eyes and threesomes with vampires…. “Give me… half an hour, okay?” This wasn’t going to be his usual three-minute morning shower routine, he was guessing. *Dammit.*

“All right.” Hange sounded curious, she also sounded a little leery about being yelled at again. “Meet me in my lab in half an hour. Mike will be here, too, since he’ll be involved. And Levi? I am sorry.” She didn’t wait for him to say anything else before hanging up.

Fucking wet dreams – he hadn’t had one in how long? And here comes Eren Jaeger with his sweet little ass, perverse sexual past and…. Levi forced himself to get out of bed and made his way to the shower. Dammit, at least he could get some payback for having to start the day out with defiling his clean shower later on in the morning’s training session.

*******

Eren poked at his breakfast with his fork, not even feeling up to the pretext of faking an appetite. He didn’t think his stomach could handle the egg/mysterious protein/hydroponic vegetable mash that passed for some sort of scramble, especially since he could smell it so vividly. Humanity struggled so much to survive the solar radiation and Malform attacks, only to do themselves in on their own food resources? It was truly pathetic….

“-going out, I better get a good dinner out of it,” he heard Sasha whine, cutting through his thoughts on how humanity was slowly killing itself via processed foods. “They *are* paying, right?”

“Wow, wouldn’t Gloria Steinem be so proud right now!” Ymir sneered at Sasha over the rim of her coffee mug. “What, you only killing Malform until the right guy comes along to take you away from all of this, puts a nice big sparkler on your finger and keeps you barefoot and preggers?” A nasty look sharpened Ymir’s narrow features. “Is the Freedom Corp the modern equivalent of going to college to hook yourself up with that pre-med or law school major and now you can coast on PTA meetings and margaritas for the rest of your lives after latching onto an MP?” She pointed a suspiciously long fingernail in Mikasa’s direction. “I always knew there was something sneaky about-“

“Ymir.” Eren was too tired for this bullshit this early in the morning, not after being subjected to a *makeover* of all things last night and then left to think about what that bastard Armin had told him instead of being able to sleep. He let a flash of fangs show when she glanced in his direction, careful to cover them before anyone else noticed, then bowed his head. “It’s too early for this shit,” he mumbled while he pushed aside his tray.

As intended, Sasha snatched up his food tray as a distraction, though she did manage a minor complaint before she descended upon the food. “You guys are weird – I never know half the stuff you talk about.” Yet she sounded cheerful before she began to stuff her face.

“Ymir’s not happy unless she’s making people confused. I think she believes that it gives her some sort of advantage in life, as if we’re all playing the same game,” Krista explained. Judging from the bit of heat in her voice, Ymir was going to be busy smoothing things out with her girlfriend later; Krista seemed big on keeping the peace, on blending in and getting along, from the little he’d seen of the girl. Considering the way that almost everyone at the table was smiling at and fawning over the pretty blonde, he’d say she did a damn good job at it.

He rested his head on the table and sighed when he felt Mikasa run her fingers through his hair. “Did you get any rest last night?”

“Not really.” He knew better than to lie since her senses were so sharp.

“Does it bother you so much, me going on the date tonight?”

His nose scrunched up at the thought of her going out with an MP, especially that horse-faced asshole, but he knew that she could take care of herself. Yet he shrugged, unwilling to admit that what had really kept him up all night was the thought of Levi, of how he was going to act around the short bastard and if it was possible that the man truly did have any romantic inclinations towards him. How did people go about this whole ‘like’ thing? What was wrong about just fucking someone, getting the pent up desire out of the way and moving on with your life? Why did there have to be something *more* involved? Why did his stomach clench and his heart beat so erratically whenever he thought about Levi?

“Eren? Are you all right? If there’s a problem I can-“  
  
He sat up and grabbed Mikasa’s hand to hold between his own. “Just be careful, all right?” he asked as he looked into her eyes. “I know Sasha will be there, but… well, I don’t trust the MPs and things are still dangerous.” He couldn’t mention the trio when they were surrounded by others.

Mikasa gave him a tender smile while she squeezed his hand in assurance. “We’ll be okay. I promise.” The way she met his gaze meant that she wasn’t going into this without careful thought.

“Yeah, and even if it costs us the free dinner, I’ll kick their asses if they try anything, I promise.” Sasha held a piece of toast to her chest as if swearing an oath upon it – which she just might be doing, considering it was a piece of food. “I won’t let anything happen to a friend and a comrade!”

Ymir made a gagging sound in the back of her throat. “You mean you won’t let anything happen to your source of free meals.” She looked proud of herself until Krista turned to chastise her for the comment, which provide rounds of laughter from the table. Eren smiled and shook his head at the look of fear on the vampire’s face as she was taken down by a ‘girl’ so much younger and a good bit smaller.

He was working up the nerve to try his coffee when Armin called out Mikasa’s name. “Don’t you think that Eren’s hair looks much better today? The girls really did a great job on him last night.” Armin’s face lit up with a proud smile as he leaned over the table.

Eren shot him a very disgusted glower and pushed his coffee aside. “I’m still not talking to you,” he huffed before tucking back the strands of hair falling into his left eye – the now neatly trimmed strands of hair. The strands of hair smelling distinctly *flowery*. His eye twitched at the memory of how he’d been held down while the *purple* goop had been dumped on his head.

Mikasa hummed for a few seconds, her head tilted to the side as she considered his appearance. Then she reached out again to stroke his hair. “He does look a bit less bedraggled now.”

“Oh screw you both,” Eren muttered as he batted her hand aside, which prompted laughter from Armin. “Maybe you should let the girls give you a make-over before your date.”

That prompted a smile from his sister as she tugged up the scarf. “Don’t pout now, it’s unbecoming.”

“I’m not- argh.” He ran his hands through his hair and tugged on the strands. “Isn’t it about time for us to report for training?”

The amusement drained from Mikasa as she straightened up in her seat. “I suppose.” She waved goodbye to Armin, who would show up with Ymir to Captain Hange; since they’d given their trays to Sasha, they didn’t have anything to return to the dishwashers but their mugs, which the girl always offered to return as well. Eren also waved goodbye and left the dining room with his sister. They made their way to the small adjunct corner of the training grounds, and were surprised to find only Gunther and Captain Zacharius waiting for them there once they arrived.  
  
“Uhm, where’s everyone else,” Eren asked when he noticed that Levi and the rest of the private squad were missing.

Gunther gave him smile by way of greeting – since the fight at the park, the man had been a lot friendlier with him. “You’re to follow me to where they’re waiting for a private training session.” He glanced at Mikasa and motioned to the captain leaning against the wall. “Mikasa, the captain has assigned you to work with Captain Zacharius today.”

Eren and his sister exchanged a quick a look before he turned back to Gunther. “Why? I thought we both were supposed to train with Captain Ackerman together.”  
  
“Because the commander wants the three of you to share your… experience with Levi, Hange and me in light of the new enemy,” Captain Zacharius explained. “Levi gets you, Hange gets Ymir and I get Mikasa.” He pushed away from the wall and approached the two of them, leaning forward to give Mikasa a quick sniff. “Yes, we’ll fight well together.” He turned away from a stunned Mikasa to give Eren a sniff as well. “Get going, Levi’s waiting for you.” For some reason, a knowing grin spread across his usually impassive face.

Still not sure what the hell was going on, Eren allowed Gunther to lead him away once he received a nod of approval from his sister. He wasn’t sure if he really trusted that odd captain, but he knew that Mikasa could look after herself, and it wasn’t as if they could so easily ignore an order from Commander Smith. At least she wasn’t stuck with Captain Hange….

Gunther led him back into the building and into a lower level, through a series of hallways until he felt that he was lost. They finally came to a door that Gunther needed to enter a code to pass through, and Eren was surprised by the size of the room inside – it looked to be a huge old storage room of sorts, with most of the boxes and pieces of furniture shoved against the wall. Cleaning bots ran back and forth across the floor, sweeping up the remaining bits of dust, while Olou and Erd inflated mats on the newly cleaned sections.

“It’s about time you showed up.” Levi stood in the center, appearing half-undressed without his grey jacket, blades and gloves, and with some sort of scarf tied loosely around his neck. While Eren watched, he untied the scarf while he walked over to them. “Figures you’d show up after all the hard work is done.”

“Uhm....” For some reason Eren felt his face become flushed and he rubbed at the back of his neck while he tried to figure out what to say.

Petra finished fussing with a stack of boxes, a piece of cloth tied over the bottom part of her face; she pulled it down as she laughed. “It’s not as if he knew what was going on, Sir.” She smiled at Eren while she motioned at the room. “What do you think of our impromptu training room?”

Eren remembered what Gunther had said earlier and frowned. “Yeah, what exactly am I supposed to be training you guys?” He wished he would stop blushing, especially since Levi was standing so close now.

“Erwin wants a few of us to get experience combat with vampires, so that means you, Mikasa and Ymir get to take off the kid gloves. In order to do that, we had to find someplace private to train.” He continued to stare at Eren, who fidgeted under the strain of his regard. “Something wrong? You feeling constipated or something?”

“I, ah, it’s the dust in the air.” Eren made a big production of rubbing his nose while waving his other hand in front of his face. Dammit, he was going to *kill* Armin for this.

“Uh-huh.” Levi looked as if he wasn’t believing a word of it; for some reason he seemed in a particularly bad mood this morning, judging from the scowl on his face. “So, we’re going to fight today, and this time you don’t have to hold back on the speed and strength. I want everyone to have a chance fighting you so they have an idea of what we’ll be up against.”

It was a relief to see that they were taking the threat of the trio seriously, though Eren wasn’t sure if this was a good idea. “I can give you some idea of what to expect, but there’s going to be a big difference between fighting me and fighting people who will gladly pull your lungs out through your nose if given a chance.”

Levi’s grey eyes narrowed and he leaned in closer. “You have any better ideas?” When Eren struggled not to react to his presence and merely shook his head, Levi huffed and smacked the scarf into his chest. “Yeah, thought so.” Then he turned around and began to pull on his gloves. “I’ll be your first sparring partner.

Great. Eren rubbed his face and wondered if he could claim that he’d inhaled too many chemical fumes last night from the make-over and needed to go to Medical or something. “Aye, aye, Captain Napoleon. Once more into the breach.” He trudged along, wondering just how spectacularly this was going to blow up in his face.

Since Levi wasn’t wearing his blades, Eren removed his, handing them off to a smiling Petra before joining the man in the middle of the mats. He eyed Levi cautiously for a moment, noticing the tension in the shorter man’s body. “You said you want to know how the others are going to fight, right?”

“I want to know how to take them down.” Levi’s scowl increased and the amount of animosity in his voice just then surprised Eren.

“Okay then.” Eren wasn’t quite sure what the hell was going on, but he figured he could handle doing his best to prepare Levi and his squad to fight the trio. Before Levi could react, Eren lunged to the left and upward, dashing past Levi at full speed. He heard the other man curse at him as he continued on, using his claws to cling to the exposed bits of wall and even the ceiling. Beneath him, Olou took to swearing while he climbed about, and he could hear Levi muttering about ‘damn brats’. He continued to race about, moving as quickly as possible to disorient the man. When he hit a patch of shadows, he coiled his legs beneath him and leapt in Levi’s direction.

To give the man credit, Levi managed to turn into the attack and raise his gauntleted arm up enough to partially block Eren. They rolled together onto the floor, Eren easily overpowering Levi and ensuring that he was the one on top when they came to a stop. He pinned down Levi’s right arm with his knee and held onto his left arm while his left hand hovered over the man’s throat, claws fully extended.

“Don’t forget that they’re not going to come after you from just the ground – they’re a hell of a lot smarter than Malform and they’re very good at having the lay of the land where they’re fighting. Mikasa and I have been ambushed more than once from above by those bastards.”

“That explains why you love rooftops so much.” Levi gazed back up at him, seemingly unfazed at being knocked to the ground and having claws posed at his throat. For the first time since Eren had seen him that morning, he appeared his normal self – at least, no more pissy than usual. “Now, unless you’re going to do some… ‘special’ training, we should try that again.” As he spoke, he shifted one of his legs, raising it between Eren’s until it rubbed against his groin.

Doing his best not to yelp in shock, Eren damn near jumped up from Levi, his face red with embarrassment. That had… surely it had been…. He stared at Levi, who had a definite smirk on his face as he stood up at a more leisurely pace, taking the time to dust off his uniform as if it were dirty. Did the smug bastard just deliberately rub against him? Surely Armin’s insane insinuations were driving Eren crazy to the point where he was imagining things.

“Come on, ‘Rebel’, show me what you’ve got,” Levi ordered, a taunting smile on his handsome face.

Eren wondered if he was going to get out of this session with anything remotely resembling his dignity *or* sanity intact.

*******

Levi took a sip from a bottle of water while he watched Gunther and Erd attempt to tackle Eren, who dodged the two men with ease and once again leapt for the walls. His squad was getting better at anticipating Eren’s speed, but they were also wearing out from the fast-paced attacks and calculated strikes. Petra and Olou were slumped against the wall a few feet away, Olou panting in exhaustion and Petra doing her best to sip her water slowly to prevent cramps, her face flushed and hair damp with sweat.

Levi felt in dire need of a shower himself, his white shirt sticking to his back with sweat and his bangs clinging to his forehead, not to mention the hot water would feel good on his sore body. The brat had managed to take him down a few times, moving with a swiftness that was almost mesmerizing; Malforms, although fast, were ungainly, ugly fucks. You never forgot that you were dealing with undead creatures, with bodies that were animated corpses. Eren, however, was alive, was as graceful as a cat stalking its prey – well, most of the time. Levi smiled as he recapped his water and set it aside.

“All right – that’s enough for today.” As soon as he called out, Eren dropped to the ground in a crouch while Gunther muttered in thanks and Erd slumped against a wall of boxes. Both of the men appeared sweaty and flushed, while Eren barely looked put out by the all of the exertion. That was, until Levi gave him an appraising stare, and then a hint of red spread out over his cheeks and he ducked his head.

Leaving the ongoing torment at that for now, Levi focused his attention back on his squad. “So, what is it that we’ve felt that we’ve learned so far today?”

Gunther huffed a few times before he spoke. “That those bastards are going to be slippery as hell to kill, Sir.”

Erd grunted in agreement. “No kidding. I’m hoping it’s a lot easier to take them down with our gauntlets.” He rubbed his left wrist as he spoke.

“Don’t count on that too much.” Eren tucked back the hair falling into his face, which Levi had noticed was less ragged today. “They’re too smart not to take an advantage like that away from you if they can.”

“I agree, which is why we practiced without blades or any rappelling today.” Levi approached the three and inwardly smirked when Eren flinched at his presence. It had been amusing as hell to get his revenge all morning long by taunting the brat as much as possible with carefully masked salacious touches; he figured if he had to suffer, then so should Eren.

Olou forced himself to his feet, his face red from exertion. “No worries, Captain. We’ll have those creatures’ heads in no time – we were just taking it easy on Eren here today.”

Before Levi could take the fool to task, Eren stepped in. “No, you won’t.” He ran his hands through his hair and clasped them behind his neck, his eyes glowing faintly. “Taking on any of the three isn’t something I’d want to do for the hell of it, and I owe them *centuries* of grief. They’re skilled, determined as hell and they don’t stop coming until either you hurt them enough or you run and hide where they can’t find you.” He let out a sharp breath and shook his head. “And you guys can’t regrow a hand or a liver, can you?”

Well, that was a cheerful way to put things, wasn’t it? Levi reached over to smack the back of the brat’s head. “I think they got the point.”

“Dammit!” Eren turned to face him, looking at him directly for the first time that day without any tentativeness or bashfulness. “Look, I’ve seen them kill way too many people I’ve known over the years. I don’t want to see them kill any more.”

Levi hated to be at a loss for words, but it was difficult to say anything after hearing that and being faced with Eren, his expression serious and huge eyes blazing with emotion. Levi stared back for several seconds before making a tsk’ing sound and looking aside. “We may not all be long-lived vampire hybrids, but we know what we’re doing.”

There was a sound of a heavy sigh from the brat. “Yeah, I hope so. Do you need me for anything else right now?”

“No, I think the squad could use a break.” Levi went over to retrieve his jacket and blades from the box where he’d left them earlier. “Eren, you, me and Gunther will be out on patrol later. Erd, I want you to shadow Mikasa tonight.” He looked up to see if the brat was going to object to the night’s plans, but was given a nod in return.

For some reason Eren didn’t stick around to chat, but considering how flustered he’d been the last time Levi’s hand had ‘accidentally’ come in contact with his ass, he supposed he couldn’t blame the kid. It had been fun to get some payback for that damn wet dream, but he was a professional and had more important things to do than tease some… whatever the hell Eren was.

Levi had almost reached his room and the much needed shower when one of his squadron tracked him down. “Sir, Commander Smith wants to see you right away,” Ramya told him, her shoulders thrown back so far the position had to be hurting the young woman. “He also said something along the lines of ‘where the hell is his comm’, but I’m not sure if that was part of the message.”

Cursing Erwin and his shitty timing, Levi dismissed the girl and spun on his heel to go see the domineering bastard. Was it too much to be clean before he put up with this shit? Apparently so. At least everyone got the hell out of his way so he made good time in reaching Erwin’s office.

“I didn’t bother with my fucking comm because I was busy *training*,” he told the asshole as soon as he entered Erwin’s office, not even bothering to see if the man was on the comm or not. “Last thing I need is a shitty, control-freak bastard like you pinging me while Eren’s trying to pound my head into the floor.”

“I’m beginning to see why Eren would want to do such a thing,” Erwin remarked with a pleasant tone, a placid smile on his face when he looked up from a datapad. “Maybe I can watch while he does it.”

“Oh fuck off and die,” Levi snarled. He was about to sit down in a chair and then thought twice about it, going with leaning against the door instead; maybe tormenting the brat hadn’t been the best of ideas, since the last couple of slams had been a bit… vigorous.

“Cheerful as always.” Erwin set the datapad aside and folded his hands together. “So I assume that training went well today?”

Levi tugged his damp shirt away from his body and grimaced. Five minutes for a fucking shower, was it that much to ask for, really? “Yes and no. We’ve an idea of how those fuckers will most likely attack and move, but Eren really drove home that they’re a class above Malforms. I’m hoping we get a few more sessions in before we run across them, because it’s not going to be easy, switching gears like that.” His people had fought Malforms for years – they did it well and were the best. It wasn’t easy to unlearn those skills in just a day, to adapt them for a prey that was smart enough to use that fact against you.

“We’ll have to see. My first impression is to try to unmask their presence in the MP, but it won’t do us any good until we find out who’s backing them there in the first place.” Erwin leaned back in his chair, his expression suddenly guarded. “Shadis agrees with me.”

It took a moment for the importance of what was just said to sink into Levi’s head – he was tired and still half-focused on taking a shower. “Shadis? You’ve talked to Shadis?” He waited for Erwin to nod before stalking over to the bastard’s desk. “Just how much did you tell him? About the vampires? About *Eren*?”

“Levi, I had to-“  
  
“You shitty bastard! You promised them that you’d keep them a secret!” Levi shouted as he reached across the desk, hands intent on Erwin’s throat. “How many people are you going to betray?”

“No one!” Erwin roared as he jumped to his feet, his hands knocking Levi’s aside. “I *had* to do it, it’s not just about Trost anymore! Dammit, Keith Shadis is about the only other person I know we can trust, and he had to know! Maria and Bern are still too quiet, and we’ve vampires in the MP here. Something is going on, something big, and that’s not even taking into account the vampires twisting the solar radiation data.” Erwin stared at him, his blue eyes wide as if he was pleading with Levi to understand. “At the very least, if Trost falls we need someone to know the truth.”

Levi always knew that Erwin put humanity first and foremost, it just was hard to take when it seemed that it was him and those around him who paid the price of Erwin’s grand schemes all the time. “And what if Shadis tells someone he shouldn’t about Eren? What if that transmission got intercepted?” Why was it bothering Levi so much – why didn’t Erwin seem to care?

“It was a secure line, I promise you that.” Erwin seemed to reach out to Levi and then thought better of it, his hand falling back onto the desk. “And you should know by now that Shadis can be trusted.”  
  
Should. *Should* know that the man could be trusted. Levi had also stood in this room and heard Erwin swear that Eren’s existence would be kept a secret, so he didn’t say anything else just then. Erwin was quiet for a few seconds before he continued. “Shadis is going to help us look into the solar radiation cover up and see what he can find out about Maria and Bern.” He paused for a second, which clued Levi into the fact that he wasn’t going to like what came next. “But he thinks – and I agree with him – that we need help here in Trost. I asked Hange to find out as much information she can about the solar radiation considering that she’s been researching it for years, and then I’m taking it to Pixis. We’ll need an ally if we’re going up against the MP.”

Erwin tensed as if waiting for an explosion, yet all Levi did was continue to stare at him for several seconds before speaking. “And what are you going to tell him,” he finally asked, his voice quieter than normal. “Are you going to tell *him* about Eren?” His hands clenched into fists, aching to reach for his blades.

There was a heavy sigh and Erwin shook his head. “Not if I can help it.” He glanced at Levi, perhaps warned by the shift in his stance. “I’m doing everything I can to keep Eren and Mikasa safe, but sometimes we have to back up our data with proof. So far, I trust Hange to do that while keeping them hidden.” He stood up and gestured to the various datapads on his desk. “We’ve vampires in the *MP*, Levi. You know how high up that has got to go. Everything… something needs to be done.”

“What I know is that they trusted you, Erwin. They stood here in this very office and took you at your word when you said you’d keep their secret and keep them safe in return for them helping you fight against the Malform and find a cure.” Levi pushed away from the desk and took a step back. “I’m just beginning to understand how much shit they’ve put up with over the years, and they took a chance on you, on *us*. I won’t just stand by and let you fuck that up.” With that said, he turned on his heel and headed for the door.

Erwin called out to him as he was just about to open it. “Is it that I’m betraying *them* or that I’m betraying *Eren* that bothers you so much?”

Levi didn’t dignify the cheap shot with an answer, he merely left the asshole’s office. As he made his way to his quarters, he found the question echoing inside his head and realized that for once he was afraid to admit the truth.

*******

Noticing that the hard drive had finished downloading, Armin began to manually check that none of the data had been corrupted; there was one more to go after this one, and then Captain Hange would have a copy of all of Eren and Mikasa’s data of Grisha Jaeger’s work – well, other than what he’d left them back in Shiganshina. Once the data transfer was completed, they’d hide the hard drives somewhere safe ‘just in case’, but it would be nice to work on the information from one main drive for a while.

Armin had just finished his check and debated on starting the final drive when Captain Hange arrived, appearing fresh from a shower and sporting a sore bottom lip. “Hello! Having fun today!”

“I think I can say more than you,” Armin replied as he looked up from the computer. “Good day at training?”

Captain Hange laughed as she fell onto the nearby chair. “Actually, it was.” She winced a little as she patted her lip. “I learned a lot about vampires today, and picked up some new moves. All in all, very productive.” She hummed a little as she jotted down notes in the small book she always carried around.

So, the captain had trained with Ymir and ‘learned a lot about vampires’ – somehow Armin didn’t think the training was covering rappelling since it wouldn’t be Captain Hange bruised and picking up new things – Mikasa and Eren were suddenly more tight-lipped than normal and Mikasa was going out on a *date* of all things tonight, with someone from the MP. He’d have to be an idiot to not figure out that something was going on, and he’d put every bit of information he’d gathered in the last forty years or so on it pointing toward the others, most likely the trio in particular, finally having tracked them down. Oh, and something to do with the MP as well. That might take a little longer to figure out…

“All right, so what have you been up to?”

The captain’s question startled Armin from his thoughts. He gave her a tentative smile while motioning toward the computer. “I finished downloading another hard drive. Almost all of the information is available to you now.”  
  
“Great!” The energetic woman jumped to her feet and actually grabbed Armin to give him a hug. “Oh, dammit!” She released him and began to stalk around the desk. “Of course Erwin gave me an assignment to do! Now I won’t be able to look at the data for *hours* at least, maybe not even until tomorrow!” She tugged on the end of her ponytail with enough force that Armin winced in sympathy.

“Uhm, what project? Is it something I can help you with, maybe?”

Captain Hange paused in her hair-pulling to blink and then gave him a huge smile. “Maybe! What do you know about the solar radiation levels? The *real* solar radiation levels?” She rushed forward to get in his face, so close that he nearly fell out of his seat. “You’ve been outside, right? Eren and Mikasa have been outside, and you’ve been with them! Tell me you’ve been outside! Why haven’t I thought about this before?!”

Scooting his chair back a little to be further away from the scary woman, Armin managed a nervous laugh while he picked up a datapad connected to the computer network. “Ah, yeah, Mikasa told me about that.” He was amazed that none of the humans had figured it out before now, to be honest. Yeah, the vampires were messing with the instruments, but were people so *blind* that they couldn’t see things for themselves? Did they have to rely upon technical readings so much and couldn’t think for themselves even after stepping outside the domes? “I’ve been outside with Eren and Mikasa, but never during the worst of the radiation. They always make sure to come back inside the domes then, since I don’t have a healing factor.”

He had to cover his ears just then as Captain Hange let out a loud squeal. “What’s it like? Is it amazing? It must be amazing! They only let me out during the two months and I just *know* it’s better than that, that there’s seasons and-“  
  
Armin waved the pad about to try to stave off another insane, rambling rant. “What do you need to know? And yes, it’s amazing. I love autumn, personally, when the leaves change.” He smiled at her as he started to access the encrypted files ‘hidden’ amongst the downloaded data. “Eren told me the trees used to be a lot smaller when he was little, so it’s much more impressive now, seeing them change.”

The captain moaned and swayed where she stood, her hands clutched to her chest. “The breaking down of chlorophyll…. I’ve always wanted to witness that! I’ve read so much about it! Trees raised in artificial environments just don’t do it properly!” She seemed to stare off in the distance and moan.

Did he just break her now or what? Was he going to get in trouble for this or was it fine since she’d had a ‘quiet’ mental snap? “Captain? What did you need?”

“Huh?” Captain Hange shook herself and blinked several times. “Oh, yes!” She bounced toward him and nearly snatched at the datapad. “You have something?”

“I have the readings I’ve been taking over the years from a recalibrated sensor,” he admitted, hoping that Mikasa and Eren were suffering through at least something as half as uncomfortable as this right now. “I don’t know how official it’ll be, it’s that and a bit of dendrochronology as wel- oh hell, please don’t choke m-agh!” He squirmed as he was damn near throttled again, the captain’s arms incredibly strong for such a lanky woman. At least she seemed so excited she couldn’t manage to get that high-pitched squeal of hers out.

Just when it seemed that he was about to expire from the lack of oxygen, he was finally released. As he slumped over and gasped for air, Captain Hange snatched the datapad from his hand and began to scroll through it. “So it’s all here? Where is it?”

He heaved a few more deep breaths before leaning over and snatching back the device. “I wasn’t finished,” he grumbled before resuming what he’d been doing before the ‘attack’. “It’s not all Grisha Jaeger data that was downloaded – there’s a couple of personal projects of mine on there as well, such as this one.” He finished decrypting it. “It’s nothing too important or personal so I don’t mind sharing it, it’s mostly encrypted so it’s not mixed up with the other research.” Figuring out what was coming next, he held out the datapad.

It was promptly grabbed from his hands and Captain Hange immediately began to dance around with it held up in the air. “Oh how I adore you, you wonderful thing! Come with me now as we make beautiful science together, my darling!”

And Armin was back to the whole ‘snapped’ theory. “I think I’m going to go get a snack,” he said in a quiet, even voice as he was careful to not make any sudden movements while he eased off of his chair. No sudden movements to set off the crazy lady, yep, that was the wisest thing to do just then. Just get out of the lab and then find either Mikasa or Eren and then smack them for putting him through this….

*******

Eren eyed Levi as he accompanied the man along on patrol; was this all some intricate ploy to drive him insane? First there was the abuse, the smacks and threats to kick his ass, and then there was the… well, there was the sexual harassment. He couldn’t think of anything else to call the out-of-the-blue fondling, the inappropriate touching, the pats and smacks and… dammit, he was blushing again, wasn’t he? Eren felt his cheek with his gloved right hand and fought the urge to whine, which would only attract Levi and Gunther’s attention. Why was he acting like this? He never got flustered when some guy found him attractive or made a pass, not unless it was some act – a lot of them liked it when he played the whole ‘innocent’ routine.

There was no sense in trying that with Levi, not when the bastard had talked to him about the whole Reiner and Bertolt mess. Was that why Levi was doing this to him? To tease him even more about the fact that he’d screwed two ‘vampires’? It really had seemed to bother the prickly bastard last night, which made no sense – Eren had screwed a lot of unsavory assholes over the years, and had dozens of threesomes. Hell, he’d even participated in a few official orgies in his time, enough to make him *damn* grateful for his healing ability. Two guys at once he could handle without a problem, but three or more and someone usually got too impatient and jumped the queue-

“Oi! Shitty brat! What the hell are you doing, other than paying attention while on patrol?”

Levi’s annoyed voice cut through Eren’s thoughts, and he realized that he’d fallen behind the two men. Eren shrugged in embarrassment and hurried to catch up.

“Well,” Levi snapped, his fine brows drawn over his narrowed eyes and his lips pressed together in annoyance.

Considering how much the man had harassed him earlier in the day – this time without Mikasa around to beat his ass into the ground - Eren saw no reason why he shouldn’t tell the truth just then. “I was contemplating how much of a pain it is when two men decide to fuck you in the ass at the same time, Sir.” He paused for a moment to enjoy the way that Levi’s left eye began to twitch. “Literally.” He gave his ‘superior officer’ as innocent a smile as he could manage.

Gunther’s face became bright red and he spun around while producing muffled choking sounds, but Levi continued to glare at him, the twitch becoming more pronounced. “That’s nothing compared to the pain your ass is going to feel when my foot’s up it,” he snapped before turning around.

“Uhm, Sir, that’s not a kink I’ve come across before-“

“Ja-Stieger, *shut it* if you want to live through this patrol.” Levi’s voice was particularly deep and vicious as he spat out the threat, his pace quickened as if he was desperate to get away from Eren. Continuing to smile, Eren followed behind, his thoughts less distracted this time now that he had managed to fluster the bastard.

Things were a bit tense after that, with Levi refusing to look at Eren for at least half an hour and Gunther continuing to stifle laughs every now and then. Eren wisely kept quiet, as he’d been ordered, and did a better job of paying better to his surroundings. They were beginning to leave a more commercial district for favor of a residential area when he thought he caught whiff of Malform scent.

“Hey, wait a second.” He held up his right hand in a request for them to stop while he took several deep breaths. “I think I smell something.”

Levi’s pissy demeanor fell away in an instant, his expression smoothing out into almost boredom and his hands falling onto his blades. “What is it?” Beside him, Gunther lost all traces of amusement and echoed Levi’s pose.

“I….” Eren frowned as he inhaled again. “I think it’s Malform – at least two of them.” He twisted about to try to pin down where it was coming from, and decided that it was from the south. “Mix of fresh and old.” Something was off about the scent – there was Malform, but there was also blood and death. It was like there was so much being thrown at him that he couldn’t ‘read’ it properly. “I don’t like this,” he admitted.

Levi continued to gaze at him with that bland expression for several seconds before nodding slightly, then spoke over his comm that they were about to go investigate a potential Malform sighting and that they might need backup. Once he was done, he motioned for Eren to lead the way.

Heading in the proper direction, Eren forced his hands onto the hilts of his blades and felt his fangs descend; something about this was bothering him, had his nerves on edge. He didn’t fight it when his vision turned the world grey, allowing his senses to heighten as it sought out prey.

It didn’t make much sense, where the ‘trail’ led him, other than it was a quiet area with the overhead lights dimmed and no people out and about. The buildings were lacking windows, probably as a safety feature, and were spaced close together for space efficiency. Eren looked about to see where a potential Malform was lurking, on edge because nothing seemed to ‘fit’ what he expected for a normal Malform hunt.

He was just about to motion for Levi and Gunther to use their gauntlets so they could investigate the roofs when two Malform came charging down the sides of the nearest building, moving with a frightening speed that signaled an intent to attack. “Captain!” Eren called out the warning even as he launched himself up the wall, forgetting about his own gauntlet at the moment. He heard the hiss of a rappelling dart being launched and saw Levi fly up to meet the other Malform right as he slammed into the one he’d targeted, claws and teeth sinking into leathery skin as he was knocked into the air. Part of him remembered his gauntlet in time and he fired off a dart while falling, bracing for the impact even as he used his teeth to rip out the creature’s throat. It let out a gargling hiss as it fell to the ground, where Gunther was quick to finish it off.

Running out the wire to lower himself to the ground, he grunted when he landed on his feet, smoke rising from the wounds on his arms and shoulders. Levi landed a few feet away in a more graceful manner, right arm slashing outward to flick away the blood from his blade. “Is that all of them?”

“I’m not sure.” Eren took a deep breath but all he smelled just then was blood – his own and the Malform he’d just killed. “I need clear-“ As he spoke, he caught motion from the top of another building. “More!”

This time there were three of them, and he struggled to use his blade to take out the Malform crawling down the building, to spare himself more wounds and the chance of being discovered. He had just sliced through its neck and was swinging back from the building when he finally caught a whiff of it, that elusive scent that revitalized and enraged him at the same time. “Fuck! Levi, they’re here!”

“What?” Levi scowled at him as he spun away from the building. “The hell you’re-“

He didn’t get a chance to either question or chastise Eren, as two dark shapes came bounding down the side of the opposite building, using strength, agility and claws to descend. Both wore dark clothes with hoods pushed back, revealing human features twisted all the more with the glowing red eyes. The large, broad-shouldered one leapt the span between the two buildings to land on the wall not too far away from Eren.

“Hey, long time no see. You doing well?”

“Fuck you!” Eren snarled at Reiner and fired a dart to take him within reach, but the man moved too fast, laughing the entire time.

“Already did that, don’t you remember? But don’t you worry, we’ll pick up from there soon enough.” He leapt again, left hand swiping against Levi’s wire and causing it to swing rapidly, altering the man’s arc and making him spin out of control. “You guys his latest fuck buddies? That how he’s suckered you in?”

“Reiner, I’m going to tear out your fucking throat and drain you dry!” Eren abandoned his blades and gave up on his gauntlet – it wasn’t any good to pretend to be a human when fighting a damn vampire. “Gonna rip you apart, gonna-“

A dark shape blurred in front of him, making him leap back before his arm was caught. “I can’t let you do that. Come along quietly and no one gets hurt,” Bertolt told him, doing his best to herd Eren back.

“Go to *hell*!” He wanted to rip Bertolt and Reiner into pieces, to tear off their heads and watch them melt away at his feet. Rage boiled inside of him, burning hatred at the people who had betrayed him, who had hunted him down, had driven him from every home he’d ever known. “Fucking die already!” He lunged forward, intent upon reaching Bertolt so he could sink his claws into him and rip him apart, unwilling to allow himself to be chased any longer.

“Reiner!” Bertolt’s eyes went wide when Eren slashed at him, and there was soon a rough, loud bark in response as the tall vampire scurried to get out of his way. Eren felt his claws tear into fabric and flesh when several more Malform came rushing in his direction.

“Dammit!” He leapt out of the way just in time, and noticed that Levi and Gunther were breaking off on their attempt to pin down Reiner to deal with the undead creatures. They shot off new wires and split apart to take on the new threat, probably before the Malform could move on into the dome. Eren went to help them and had to scramble back when Reiner landed above him.

“Sorry, we can’t have you go join your new friends just yet.” Reiner twisted on the wall to face Eren. “Besides, I would have thought that you would have learned better by now.” He didn’t sound as deliberately taunting as before, this time there was a serious expression on his face as he closed in. “Do them a favor and just give in.”

“No way in hell.” Eren debated taking this fight to the roof, but before he could, Bertolt plowed into him, causing his claws to scrape along the wall before he lost traction and went tumbling through the air. This time he wasn’t able to get his gauntlet ready quickly enough, not with Bertolt latched onto his left arm, and he couldn’t do anything but brace for impact. As with every fall in the past, the drop through the air felt like forever even though he barely had the time to dig his claws into Bertolt’s arms and lunge forward to sink his teeth into the traitor’s shoulder even as Bertolt’s claws ripped into him. The blood had just begun to flow into his mouth when intense pain exploded through his upper back and shoulders, the first part of his body to slam into the ground. Bright lights sparked through his vision before everything went dark.

He came back to his rather befuddled senses to find himself lying on the ground, his body refusing to obey his command to move and his vision double. Around him was yelling and cursing, the voices somewhat recognizable – he thought he heard Levi? And wasn’t that Reiner? Dammit, he needed to heal faster and fight.

“-some fucking back-up here now!”

“Bertolt, get Eren out of here, I’ll handle these two!”

Large, warm hands began to pick him up, causing Eren to hiss both in pain and from anger. He pushed feebly with his right arm, the only arm that worked just then, at the large, dark shape that loomed over him and blinked his eyes to force them to focus.

“It’s all right, we won’t hurt you. Just stop fighting us,” Bertolt pleaded. He tugged Eren into an upright position and wrapped his arm around his back. Eren struggled as best he could while he was lifted, his body slowly healing from the impact, but he only managed to land a few scratches.

“Sir! I’ll handle this one,” Gunther called out, and soon after there was a metallic ‘thunk’ as something impacted near Eren and Bertolt. Eren looked over in time to see Levi sliding down a wire fast, spinning the last few feet so he could lash out at Bertolt.

This time the drop wasn’t too far, and Eren managed to land on his hands and knees when Bertolt dropped him, the impact knocking the breath out of him. Yet his body was a bit more responsive now, although nothing like normal. He struggled to his feet, stumbling to the wall to use it for support while he completely recovered – where was a fucking Malform when he needed one? All there were right now were scattered piles of goo.

Several feet away was Levi spinning through the air while he fought Bertolt, actually holding his own as the tall, lanky vampire did what he could to avoid the man’s feet and blades. Levi did his best to use his speed to prevent giving Bertolt an opening even though he didn’t manage to land any hits. Meanwhile, Gunther twisted about in the air, using his wire to try to keep up with Reiner.

The blond vampire snarled in frustration of being forced higher up the wall and glared down at the ground. “Eren, I’m giving you one last chance – come with us or things are going to get nasty.”

Before Eren could reply, Levi made that annoyed, tsk’ing sound of his while slashing at Bertolt’s neck. “Forget it, the brat’s not going anywhere.”

Reiner sighed and shook his head, as if upset with Levi’s declaration. “You’re only delaying the inevitable, human. It’s your death – that’s how this always ends, right Eren?” He gave Eren a lingering, pitying look before he sprung out in the air.

“No! Reiner, no!” Eren attempted to scramble up the wall, his limbs still weak and unable to lift him more than a foot or two. “Dammit, fight *me*!”

“Eren, get your ass back down and stay out of trouble!”

Reiner grinned, the expression more pained than amused, as he flew through the air and caught the wire that Gunther hung suspended upon. Both of them swung about from the added weight and impact, and as Eren watched, something sharp flashed in Reiner’s right hand. The next thing he knew, both Gunther and Reiner were falling through the air, the wire holding them up sliced, and just like Bertolt had done, Reiner made sure that Gunther took the brunt of the impact.

“No!” Eren fell to one knee as he dropped from the wall and had to force his body upright, to move in the direction of the fallen Freedom Corps fighter. He watched in horror as a visibly stunned Reiner shook his head before leaning down and biting into an immobile Gunther’s throat, drinking deeply several times before pulling back sharply, tearing out flesh with a jerking motion. “NO!”

Off to the side, he heard a scream of rage; Reiner sat upright at the sound, his mouth covered with blood. He turned his head off to the left and then to the right, where he caught sight of Eren and slowly stood up, Gunther still lying bleeding out at his feet. Reiner limped the first few steps he took toward Eren, his motions growing steadier after a few seconds.

Eren stumbled forward to meet him, the rage giving him the strength that his broken body needed. He had only gone a couple of feet when he heard the whir and thunk of rappelling gear, of worried voices calling out his, Levi and Gunther’s names.

Anger flashed across Reiner’s face as he pulled back. “Bertolt,” he shouted as he dove for the wall, crawling up with less speed and agility than he’d shown earlier. There was a cry of pain and then another dark shape joined him, rushing for the roof and over it.

The savage, blood-thirsty part of Eren wanted to chase after them, to slake his hunger in their blood but the scent of fresh blood nearby shook him from his rage. He forced himself away from the wall and toward the enticing aroma. “Gunther!”

Levi, his uniform slashed around the arms and his black bangs plastered to his forehead, rushed over to the fallen fighter as well. “Dammit! Gunther!” He reached the man before Eren and dropped to his knees, his blades falling to the ground beside him as he reached for Gunther’s shoulders, while around them several other members of the Corps began to arrive.

Eren more fell then knelt on the other side of Gunther, his hands trembling as he fought back the need for blood. He knew without looking that Gunther was dead, could smell the stench of death and approaching change. “Levi….”

“Dammit!” Rage twisted Levi’s features and made his grey eyes blaze almost as bright as a vampire’s; he pressed his gloved hands against the gaping wound in Gunther’s neck. “Dammit, don’t do this! You’re a fighter, one of our best!”

Eren thought he heard Captain Hange whispering to someone but focused on the man in front of him instead. “Captain… Levi, I’m sorry.” He was – he was so tired of the people he knew being killed by those fucking vampires, of being in this position where he could do nothing but kneel over their corpses. When would he fucking learn? Why did he have to keep giving Reiner and the others new targets?

Levi trembled for a few seconds before shaking his head. “It’s not your fault, brat. Gunther was a good man, he died trying to make a difference.” He slowly removed his hands from Gunther’s throat, the flow of blood having stopped.

He died because he came near Eren, but there was little point in saying that now. Eren rubbed at his face with his right hand, mindful of his claws, and dared to broach what needed asked. “Uhm… do you want… me to take care… of him?”

At first he thought that Levi didn’t hear him and was about to ask again, his intentions a bit clearer since he knew that Gunther was going to change quickly, and then Levi shook his head again while picking up his blade with his right hand. “No, he was one of mine, he’s my responsibility.” He paused to remove his bloodied left glove so he could tear free a patch from Gunther’s jacket, then rose up enough on his knees to have a clean strike.

Eren looked away while it was done and struggled to his feet, his body mostly healed but incredibly weak; he would have to feed soon, but didn’t know how he would manage that with Levi appearing so dazed just now. Once Eren was standing, Captain Hange came over, a sorrowful expression on her face; behind her was Ymir, who stared intently at Eren.

“Oh Levi, Sweetie, I am *so* sorry,” the bespectacled captain told him, daring to even lean forward to give him a quick hug. “Gunther was a great guy.”

“Why the fuck did it take so long for you to get here?” Levi pushed her away with his bloody right hand, a grimace on his face when he realized that he was still wearing the stained glove which he immediately began to remove.

Captain Hange didn’t seem offended by the brush-off. “Because we were attacked by a pack of Malform while on the way – we couldn’t let them alone and have them kill civilians, could we?”

Levi looked ready to argue but closed his eyes again. “No, you couldn’t.” He combed back his bangs with his fingers and let out a slow breath, his shoulders slumped forward. “They planned this – they did their best to get Eren from us.”

Ymir spoke up for the first time since she’d arrived. “They’ve probably been watching for a bit, figuring out your pattern. If I were you, I’d keep him confined to the base as much as possible.” She gave Eren an apologetic look when he glared at her for the interference; what game was she playing now?

Looking as if he wanted to say something, Levi opened his mouth yet shut it a moment later. He shook his head as he shoved Gunther’s patch into a pocket inside of his jacket. “Let’s get back to headquarters,” was what he finally said as he began to walk away, his pace lethargic.

Eren watched after him with concern and went to catch up with him, but Captain Hange caught his arm and shook her head. “Give him some space,” she warned, her voice pitched low and a gleam of pity in her brown eyes. “He’s not going to listen to anyone right now.” She waited until Eren let out a sigh and nodded in understanding, then made sure to fall in step at his right side. Ymir edged in on his left, and the other two people who had come with Captain Hange – Moblit and a strange man whom Eren had never seen before – followed behind. Eren felt caged in by them, felt as if he couldn’t be trusted to walk around by himself but was too tired and sore to argue just then. He wasn’t about to draw things out and risk another attack, not when he merely wanted to return to where it should be safe and curl up somewhere quiet. His hunger could wait a little longer.

He trailed after Levi and wondered how many more people would die – people he’d been foolish enough to let in close, to befriend. Maybe he was growing senile with old age.

*******

“So where are we going?”

Mikasa found it very telling that Sasha was more focused on where they were dining that evening than on whom she’d been set up with for her blind date. Biting back on a smile, she did her best not to fuss too much with her scarf, having been ordered by Armin to leave it looped loosely around her shoulders instead of in its usual position around her chin. “Some little café not too far from headquarters. Armin’s eaten there several times, and he says the food is very good.”

“Huh.” Sasha didn’t look too convinced of that fact, though it might be some discomfort over the outfit that Mina, Lakshmi and Nayara had forced her to wear; Mikasa thought she appeared rather fetching in the deep orange tunic and dark brown leggings, with her hair tied loosely at the base of her neck – at the least, Jean’s partner shouldn’t have any complaints. “But does Armin have any good *taste*.” Well, maybe she wasn’t so bothered by the outfit after all.

“I can assure you that Armin is used to food much better than the swill that the Corps has been feeding us lately.” Mikasa reflected back upon Eren’s cooking for several seconds, to the meals that their mother would make for them so long ago, the fancy dinners they would attend with their father and the even more distant ones that her own mother used to make. She forced herself to stop before the profound sadness would take over. No, tonight wasn’t the time for that, tonight was when she would focus on the future, would take steps to bring it about. She would force herself to be as charming as possible, would do what she could to get the answers that she and Eren needed.

Sasha appeared hopeful as she tugged at the hem of the long, loose tunic. “Really? I mean, I don’t think it’s too bad, it’s better than the rations back home. But a *really* good meal…” A goofy smile spread across her face.

“Yes, and all you have to do is put up with Jean’s partner for a couple of hours.”

Sasha skipped beside her for a few steps. “Yeah, about that. Why are you really dating an MP?” She backed away a little when Mikasa turned to look at her and gave her a nervous smile. “Uhm, I mean, you can have your choice of a lot of the guys in the Corps, you do know that, right? A lot of them were so happy to know that Eren’s your brother and Armin a cousin.”

Mikasa shrugged as she smoothed down the front of the fitted red sweater that Armin insisted that she wear instead of black. “He was the first one to ask me out,” she admitted. It was the truth, though Sasha didn’t appear to really believe it.

Fortunately, they arrived at their destination just then, sparing her any more questions. Mikasa looked around before she entered the small café and caught a glimpse of Erd sitting near the window of the coffee shop across the street. He must have left a little before they did to avoid notice, and once he caught her attention, he shifted back more into the shadows before Sasha saw him as well. Mikasa felt a little better in knowing that there was a skilled fighter waiting to provide support in case Annie and the others had heard about the ‘date’ tonight, even though she had planned on arranging the dinner close to headquarters so more back-up could arrive in a timely manner.

They had just stepped into the café when she heard her name called out – looking across the half-filled room, she could easily spot Jean because of his height, standing at a table not too far from the door. “Mikasa!” He hurried toward her, leaving his partner at the table. “You made it!”

“Was there some doubt?” She gave him a small smile and felt amused at the way he blushed. He seemed to have put some effort into tonight, dressing in what appeared to be nice grey dress pants and a white shirt, with a black belt and shoes. His hair was combed and brushed back, and she could catch a whiff of a spicy cologne. If Eren were here, her brother would no doubt be making jokes of trying too hard, but to her surprise, Mikasa found it endearing. When was the last time that someone had tried so hard to impress her on a first date? When was the last time she’d had a ‘first date’? “Are we late?”

“Ah, no, we just got here a little early.” Jean bowed his head as if embarrassed, but grinned when he looked back up. “We’re a bit happy to have a night off, finally.” He looked over at Sasha before motioning them toward the table. “So, you are?”

“Sasha Blouse.” She barely paid him any attention while she glanced around the café, focusing particular attention to the plates of food on the other tables.

“It’s nice to meet you.” He paused for a moment, a hint of red returning to his cheeks. “You both look very nice.”

Mikasa murmured a ‘thank you’ before sitting down, having to pull on Sasha’s tunic to get her friend to settle as well, since the girl was distracted by a tray of passing food.

“Connie, this is Sasha Blouse. Sasha, this is my partner, Connie Springer.” Jean appeared hopeful as he made the introductions, his partner staring in wonder at Sasha from across the table. Connie had dressed a little more casual than Jean, and he seemed suddenly uncomfortable with his green jersey while he continued to stare at Sasha.

“Uhm, it’s nice to meet you.”

Sasha smiled back at him, seeming oblivious to his sudden nervousness. “Nice to meet you, too. Are we going to order any appetizers?”

A big grin spread across Connie’s face. “Yeah, I’m starving. What do you want to eat?”

Those appeared to be the magic words for Sasha, as she snatched up the nearest menu and shared it with the young man, eagerly pointing out several options. While they concentrated on picking out some food, Mikasa waited to see what Jean would do next.

“So, have you been in the Corps for long,” he asked as he fiddled with the menu. “I mean, you said that Captain Ackerman is training you and your brother looks really young.”

Interested in seeing if the questions would center on Eren for much of the night, Mikasa shrugged as she picked up a menu as well and perused the drink list. “We just joined recently.” If he was one of Annie’s pawns, he would know that already. “We wanted to do something worthwhile with our lives.”

“You can do that in the MP, you know.” A fierce look came over Jean’s face. “I know that you Win- that the Freedom Corps doesn’t always think much of us, but we do more than just stand around. We-“ He was cut off by the young man dressed in black and white who asked if they would like anything to drink or some appetizers.

Sasha and Connie were quick to speak up and place several appetizer orders, and judging from the irate look on Jean’s face, she was under the impression that he was the one footing the bill for the night. When it came time for something to drink, Jean hesitated, his attention on the wine list, and Mikasa took pity on him. She told the server a name of a bottle of a decent red wine, nothing too expensive but still good, and he only paused for a moment to examine her before leaving to place the order. Once he left, she gave Jean what passed as a shy smile. “I hope you don’t mind me doing that.”

“No, not at all.” He smiled back as he set the menu aside. “I never know what to order, to be honest.”

“Yeah, last time we went out, he picked something that tasted like really sweet grape juice.” Connie shuddered in exaggerated horror. “And wouldn’t let me order anything else unless I was going to pay for it.”

“*Someone* likes to be free with my money.” Jean reached over to run his hand over Connie’s closely shaved hair, wringing a laugh from his partner; Mikasa was under the impression that these two were as much friends as partners, which was refreshing to see.

“I have to have something to-“ All of a sudden Connie’s good mood came to an end. He glanced down at the table and fidgeted with the menu he had been sharing with Sasha. “Well, I used to send my money back home.”

The expression on Jean’s handsome face turned serious as he stared down at his clasped hands. “Connie’s from Ragako.”

Sasha gasped at the news and offered her sympathies to Connie in a hushed voice, while Mikasa bowed her head. “It’s terrible, losing your family like that,” she murmured in a quiet voice, her hands wrapped in the ends of her scarf.

The background noise in the café wasn’t too bad, so Jean was able to hear her. “Is that- did you join the Freedom Corps because of that?” He gazed at her intently, as if her answer truly mattered to him.

It was still very early on, but she was doubtful that this young man was caught up in Annie’s machinations; her instincts weren’t quite as sharp as Eren’s could be at times, but she was also the better judge of human relationships than her brother. “Yes.” She closed her eyes for a moment as she thought about that awful day so long ago, when she’d first found out about Malform. “Yes – Eren’s my only real family left, him and a distant cousin.” She forced herself to let go of the soft material.

Jean looked ready to say something, but the server returned with their bottle of wine just then, along with glasses and a pitcher of water. He promised to be back soon with food and to take their dinner order. That led to Sasha cheering Connie on to help her pick something from the menu while Jean poured them all a glass of wine.

“I guess I’m lucky in that my parents are alive and back at the Maria dome.” Jean filled Mikasa’s glass first and waited for her approval before continuing. “I did lose a good friend right before we left for training – somehow a Malform got him right outside his own apartment without anyone hearing a thing.” Jean’s face became flushed with anger and the wine sloshed in his glass as his hand trembled with the emotion. “Stupid fool, who gets killed two days before leaving for the MP?”

The table was quiet for several seconds before Connie laughed, the sound forced and brittle. “Yeah, I mean, the slots are in such high demand that his position and a couple of others were already filled by the time we arrived here for our training. I hear there’s a waiting list *this* long!” He gestured wildly with his hands, spreading them as wide apart as he could. “We’re the best of the best!” A huge grin split across his face as he thrust out his thin chest.

“Please, you mean you’re the best, second to the Freedom Corps!” The teasing grin on Sasha’s face took out the sting in her words, but fortunately their server had arrived just in time with the appetizers to prevent any real fight. As for Mikasa, she forced herself to sip her wine to ensure that she didn’t reveal any telling emotions just then; so it sounded as if a few MP recruits had ‘conveniently’ died right before Jean and the others had arrived to start their training? Somehow, she doubted that it was a coincidence. She was left to wonder how many recruits had been killed in total so that the vampires could ensure that there were enough of them embedded in the MP to cover a sufficient amount of domes where she and Eren might go during this solar flare cycle.

“Oh, this looks so good!” Sasha began to help herself to the food immediately, startling to the two MPs at the table. The young woman’s ‘healthy’ appetite prompted a wry smile from Mikasa as she watched, well familiar with the scene by now.

“Miss? What would you like for dinner?”

“Hmm?” Mikasa glanced up at the server and set aside her menu. “Just a cup of your crab bisque will be fine, thank you.”

The server nodded before continuing around the table to take everyone else’s order. As soon as Jean had placed his and ordered some more wine, he hurried to refill her glass. “You can order some more, you know. Even if those two gluttons are determined to order one of everything on the menu.”

“No, it’s all right, I don’t have much of an appetite.” Mikasa tugged at her scarf and wondered if she should use Ymir’s ‘food allergy’ excuse right about now, but then Sasha came to her rescue.

Quickly shoving a piece of bruschetta into her mouth, Sasha nodded twice as she swallowed. “She’s always like this whenever she trains with Captain Ackerman during the day. I think he wears her out too much or something.”

Grateful for the girl’s quick thinking, Mikasa gave Jean a reassuring smile. “His sessions are… very intense. I learn a lot, but I am a bit sore right now.”

Connie groaned as if in sympathy and used the hand not holding onto a piece of something deep-fried and battered to twirl about in the air. “Damn, that shortie is amazing. Has a really shitty attitude, but he can do incredible things with a gauntlet.”

Jean lifted his wineglass and drained its content in a rush, his expression unreadable when he set the empty glass on the table. “He’s… he’s a hardass, that captain.” He stared intently at Mikasa. “Him and your brother.”

She remembered Eren telling her that Jean, or ‘horse-face’ as he called him, hadn’t been able to do what was necessary when it came to those infected by the Malform. “They do what’s needed to keep everyone safe. We all do – that’s part of our job.” She fingered the fringe of her scarf as she thought about – no, not here.

Jean let out a loud sigh and ran his right hand through his hair, tousling the gelled strands. “I guess. It’s just-“ he paused while the new wine bottle was dropped off at their table. “I guess it’s just so fucked up that we live in a world where it needs to be done, is all.”

“It’ll be even more fucked up if it’s not done when it’s necessary.” Mikasa grabbed the bottle so she could refill everyone’s glasses, grateful for the distraction. “Trust me on that.”

“You know, there are times when you seem much older than you look.” Jean pointed the index finger of the hand holding his wineglass at Mikasa. “I like that about you.”

If only the poor boy knew the truth. Mikasa resisted the urge to fuss some more with her scarf just then, a little embarrassed by the flattery. She was just about to turn the conversation back onto Jean and hope to learn a bit more of what was happening at the MP base when there was a loud beeping noise from across the table.

Both Jean and Connie let out curses and fumbled for something in their pockets, only to pull out small personal datapads. Connie’s expression crumbled while Jean’s hardened as they flicked their fingers over the screen to reveal whatever the message was that the devices were broadcasting; Jean leaned over the table and pitched his voice low to keep his words from carrying. “There’s been another Malform attack.”

Mikasa slammed her glass onto the table, instantly concerned about Eren – he was out on patrol tonight, with only the Short Bastard to watch his back. “Where? We have to go!” She pushed back her chair and rose to her feet, determined to go help her brother.

“Wait!” Jean lunged across the table to grab hold of her wrist – she nearly snarled and lashed at him in return, only catching herself at the last second. “There’s nothing you can do, I’m sure that the Corps and the MPs are already rushing to the scene. It doesn’t sound like a bad attack.” He smiled just then, as if to reassure her.

What were the odds of it being just a ‘minor’ attack after the last two big ones? Especially when Annie had revealed herself to Mikasa? No, she *had* to leave, *now*.

“We’re really sorry, but it’s protocol for us to return to headquarters during any incidents like this.” Sasha stood up as well and reached over to pat Connie’s hands. “I wish we could stay, but we’d be in so much trouble if we did. We’ll make it up to you next time!”

That seemed to placate Connie, who nudged Jean in the side. “Come on, let them go. Just because we’re always in trouble doesn’t mean that they should be, too.”

Jean was frowning at nothing as if torn over what to do, so Mikasa pulled at her arm while offering him a slight smile. “It’ll be my treat to make up for leaving through dinner. We’ll meet back up at the shop to arrange another night.”

“All right.” He didn’t appear happy just then, but he let her go. “I suppose we can always track you down at the Corps headquarters if we don’t run into you again,” he teased.

“Ha! Be prepared to have your MP butt kicked,” Sasha teased back. She gave them a wave and then followed Mikasa out the restaurant; Mikasa felt that she had spared enough time on social pleasantries and needed to find out what was really happening. She looked for Erd as soon as she was outside but couldn’t find the man.

“Mikasa, slow down!”

Sasha’s cry made her realize that she was moving a little too fast along the street, so Mikasa forced herself to a more ‘human’ pace. “Sorry.”

Huffing a little, Sasha caught up with her, her face flushed and her expression curious. “Something bad is happening, isn’t it?”

Not quite sure what the girl meant just then, Mikasa shook her head. “It’s never good when Malform attack.” She tugged her scarf up higher about her neck.

Sasha made a rude noise and waved her right hand about. “No, that’s not what I meant.” She was quiet for a few steps. “Look, I know there’s something different about you and Eren. Oh, and Ymir, too. It has something to do with what’s going on right now, I bet.”

Mikasa stumbled a little before she caught herself. “I don’t-“

“I mean, you just can’t *not* eat like the way you three do. Or not do. Whatever.” Sasha waved her hand about again. “And don’t tell me that you grab something to eat later on, because I should know – they don’t let you grab more than a bite here or there unless something happens to make us all miss a meal. It’s not enough to make up for you guys basically drinking at the meals and nothing else.” Her features hardened just then. “I grew up in the Bayern agricultural dome, and despite what people think, there’s barely enough food to go around for the people doing all the work. I know all the tricks of sneaking food… or not, so you can hoard it for later or save it for someone else.”

There wasn’t much that Mikasa could say just then, so she just shook her head once more. “We’re a lot like you, pretty much.” Why had Sasha come tonight if she suspected something?

“I know. You’re a good friend.” Just like that, Sasha was back to the smiling young woman she almost always appeared. “I mean, it’s obvious that the commander and the captains trust you, so it’s all good, I just wanted you to know since it seems you might need some help with those two back there.”

“Thank you.” Mikasa had to wonder how many people saw just the smiling, friendly façade and underestimated Sasha. She’d have to make sure she wasn’t one of them from now on. “I think I will need your help, and to answer your question, yes, I think something bad did happen tonight.”

“Figures. Right before dinner arrived, too.” Sasha sighed and pushed back her sweaty bangs. “Oh well, at least I got something to eat.” She beamed as she wrapped her arms around her stomach. “Better luck next time!”

Not quite sure what to make of that statement, Mikasa shook her head and hurried down the block leading to headquarters. She could see Captain Hange waiting by the front gate and waving to her, which gave her some hope that it couldn’t be too bad, not if one of the main captains was back at base – until she noticed the grim expression on the woman’s face.

*******

Eren made his way into the common room, hoping that he’d find Mikasa returned from her date and waiting for him. He almost stumbled from exhaustion and rubbed his eyes while he steadied himself against someone’s bunk bed, disappointed when he didn’t pick up her scent. All around him were chattering voices, people laughing and talking, calling out each other’s names as they rushed about. Part of him hated them just then, these people he’d chosen to fight alongside, these… these *young* fools.

“Eren? Eren, are you all right?”

He forced his eyes open and found Armin standing a few feet away, a horrified look on his face. He barely managed a weak smile when Armin let out a mangled sound, half like a sob and half like a laugh, and pulled him toward the nearest empty bed.

“You look terrible! Your uniform is all torn! Were you involved in the Malform attack we heard about?” Armin fussed with his ruined jacket as if he could make it look better.

Feeling bad about how he was probably dirtying another person’s bed, Eren tried to rise up, only to be pushed back down by an insistent Armin. “Well?”

“Fuck,” he muttered as he did his best not to fall onto his back, scrambling up onto his elbows to stay as upright as possible. “Yeah, sorta.” He managed to sit up again and ran a hand through his tangled hair. “Gunther’s dead.”

Armin’s blue eyes narrowed and he leaned in closer, his right hand latched onto the frame of the top bunk bed - more as if to keep Eren pinned down than to hear his quiet voice. “Those most of been some nasty Malform, huh.” When Eren didn’t say anything, he let out a slow breath. “*They’re* here, aren’t they?”

Somehow, Eren wasn’t surprised that his friend had figured it out. “Yeah,” he repeated, too tired to keep things secret like Commander Smith and Levi wanted.

“Of course.” Armin was quiet for a minute, yet his attention stayed focused on Eren the entire time. “You look like shit, you know.” When Eren laughed at the comment, his expression didn’t change. “Seriously, you’re completely ashen – I’d say you’re pale but I don’t think it’s possible for you.”

“Thanks a lot.” There were days when Eren missed the respectful little kid he’d helped raised. He tugged his fingers through a particularly stubborn knot, the pain helping to clear his muddled mind. “Go ahead, stroke my ego a little more.”

Armin rolled his eyes and raised his left hand as if tempted to smack Eren. “I’m beginning to think there’s a correlation between advanced age and being an immense smart-ass.” He scoffed once and reached out to brush something from Eren’s cheek. “In all honestly, you look like you need to eat.”

Yeah, like that was going to happen any time soon. Eren hung his head forward and groaned at the mention of ‘food’. “I don’t think they’re going to let me out anytime soon.” Between Reiner and Bertolt’s attack and Ymir’s ‘advice’, he’d probably be lucky to be able to peek outside headquarter walls for the foreseeable future.

“But that’s not going to work out for you!” Armin appeared indignant at the thought. “You need-“

“I need some air to clear my head.” Eren forced himself onto his feet, being careful when he pushed Armin aside. “Look, can we talk about this later?” He didn’t want to risk anyone overhearing a conversation like this.

That thought must have occurred to Armin because for once he gave in without any fight. “Just be careful, all right?” He leaned in to give Eren a brief, forceful hug that left Eren swaying when he was released. “I don’t want to get yelled at by Mikasa if you do something stupid like usual.”

“You used to be such a good kid,” Eren complained as he made his way to the nearest exit. Along the way he passed Krista, who gasped when she saw him but left him alone when he shook his head. Other people called out his name as well, but seemed to accept his wish to be left alone when he waved them off – they were probably used to people coming back from difficult patrols and needing some peace and quiet.

The air outside felt good on his face, never mind that it was still recycled air and that he’d been outside just a short time ago; it didn’t smell so strongly of other people and it moved more freely than the stifled air inside the building. After checking to make sure that there weren’t any witnesses nearby, Eren used his claws to climb up onto the roof.

Once on top of the building, he settled down as comfortably as he could with a barely healed body and a heavy heart. Why the hell hadn’t he expected something like tonight would happen? Had he really thought that the Freedom Corps could stand up to the others like… like equals? Sure the organization was good at killing Malform, but they still suffered losses and they were only human. Annie, Reiner and Bertolt… Eren always fought best against them when he lost himself to the anger inside of himself, when all rationality faded away and he became little more than a monster. Otherwise, he risked injuries as bad as today if not worse before he and Mikasa could escape; they’d long ago given up on trying to outright fight and would just run, saving any stand for less determined vampires they’d have a better chance of taking down.

He rubbed his fingers over the shiny metal of his gauntlet and wondered if this hadn’t been some huge mistake, if they shouldn’t have just broken a seal that night when he’d stumbled across Levi. Gunther would still be alive, Levi wouldn’t be acting like a man aged before his time and the Freedom Corps wouldn’t have a huge target painted on their backs. The trio would leave Trost as soon as they were certain that Eren and Mikasa were gone – Armin was old enough that he could stay behind and enter the University on his own.

Eren was trying to figure out which of their ‘rainy day’ stashes they could head for – the Lake Constance one? maybe up by Dusia - when he heard the sound of claws on concrete. Since he *did* hear someone approaching, he knew it wasn’t an attack – no one intent on taking him down would be so obvious – so he wrapped his arms around his knees and waited for Mikasa’s arrival.

She appeared several seconds later, still dressed in the black pants, white shirt and red sweater she’d worn to the ‘date’ earlier, the scarf looped loosely around her neck and shoulders. A relieved smile blossomed across her lips when she spotted Eren, fading quickly after she took in his appearance. “Armin was right.”

“When isn’t he?”

The comment didn’t seem to amuse her, and she rushed to his side. “Here, drink this.” Mikasa reached into the back pocket of her pants and pulled out a fair-sized flask, which she shoved into Eren’s right hand. “It should still be warm.”

“Well, there goes hoping that it’s something alcoholic, I suppose.” Eren waited until his sister sat down beside him and leaned against her, grateful for her presence and her warmth. The flask did indeed feel warm to his touch, possibly from Mikasa’s body temperature, and when he unscrewed its top his fangs immediately descended because of the scent that rushed out. “Blood?” It smelled a bit familiar….

“Armin and Krista donated a little for you.” Mikasa reached over to push his hand wrapped around the flask upward, toward his mouth. “Now drink it quickly, before it coagulates.”

Not a fan of thickening blood, Eren grimaced and did as he was told; he much preferred Malform blood to human, but beggars couldn’t be choosy when they were starving. The blood was already cooling off and getting a bit clumpy, yet it tasted *wonderful* just then, was just what his poor body needed to help it heal and to push back the hunger pangs. He drank down every drop he could and licked inside the flask as far as his tongue could reach.

Once he was finished, he handed the flask back to his sister. “Thank you.” He’d have to thank Armin and Krista later, and probably Ymir as well, since he was certain that the vampire hadn’t been happy over her lover volunteering what had been at least a cup or two of blood like that.

“You’re welcome.” Mikasa pulled back enough so she could give him a proper look-over before fussing with her scarf. “You already seem a little better now.” She settled back beside him and ran her fingers over a tear in his pants, her touch ticklish. “Just how bad was it?”

“It wouldn’t have been too awful if it was just the Malform, but Bertolt decided to drop me off a fucking wall, digging his claws in me on the way down and making sure that I landed on the bottom.” Eren laughed a little then, busy twisting a strand of hair around one of his fingers. “Wait until Ymir finds out, the ‘bottom’ jokes will never end, I bet.” He let out a yelp when Mikasa gave him a light whap across his stomach.

“It’s not that funny.” She glared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head, a hint of a smile peeking out past her scarf. “Okay, maybe it’s a little funny. You’re such an idiot.”

“It might have been remarked upon, a time or two.” Eren gave up on his hair so he could rest his head against his sister’s. “So, how was your date?” He didn’t want to talk about his night any longer. “You get kissed by a horse?”

Used to his way of changing the subject, Mikasa snorted in amusement and gave his forehead a slight flick with her fingers before she answered. “It wasn’t too bad, before I heard about the Malform attack and ended it early.” She was quiet for a few seconds. “I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there for you.”

“It’s okay – I actually thought it was a good thing, them not trying for both of us tonight,” Eren assured her. “Even if it meant you were stuck with that horse-faced asshole.”

Mikasa moaned and gently knocked their heads together. “You’re *such* a stubborn ass. Jean’s not too bad, I’ll have you know.” She fell quiet again for several heartbeats. “I’ve had much worse dates in my life.”

“Mikasa, you’ve been on an awful lot of dates, so that’s not saying much,” Eren pointed out while being a helpful brother. “That’s like me saying that ‘eh, the sex wasn’t *too* bad, in comparison’.”

That earned him another whap to his stomach but a true laugh from his sister. “Definitely an ass.” Her dark eyes sparkled in the dim light and her lips curved widely with a smile. “All right, it was a nice date. He was so eager to do everything right – it’s been a long time since I went out with someone who was trying so hard to make me happy.”

Eren bit his tongue before he said something that would ruin the moment, such as the fact that this Jean was a hell of a lot younger than Mikasa, and that she was just using the poor kid for information. In the end, what mattered was that his sister was gaining some enjoyment out of this whole mess… well, real life was going to fuck it up soon enough, so who was he to step in before that? “I’m glad you had a nice time.”

“Thank you.” Mikasa settled back against him. “We’re going to try again, since tonight got interrupted.” She played with the ends of her scarf for a minute. “Sasha knows about us, though.”

“Huh.” Eren stared out over the training ground and took a few seconds to mentally digest that fact. “She knows who we are?” How the hell had she found that out?

Mikasa shrugged, her hands wrapped around the soft material of her scarf. “No, she just figured out that we’re not… that we’re different. She’s smarter than she seems, and she swears that she’s not going to tell anyone.”

This really wasn’t his night, was it? Eren rubbed his forehead, which still ached despite the blood he’d just drank. “Okay.” Sasha seemed the type to do what she said, so he was willing to take her at her word. “Do you think we should tell Commander Smith about her?”

“I’d rather not, just in case it would get her into trouble.” Mikasa let go of her scarf. “She confided in me, I’d hate to make it seem as if I betrayed that.”

“It makes sense.” Eren let out a weary sigh and laid back to stretch out on the roof. “This has been one hell of a long day. Makes me scared to see what comes along tomorrow.”

Mikasa turned enough to look down at him, her expression tender just then. “It’ll be all right, you’ll see. Armin and I are here for you.”

He wanted to ask her if she thought that they should just run away, should just leave everything behind and go before there was more blood, more death, but he couldn’t do that when he’d gotten her into this mess and she was planning dates and being the hopeful one for once. Maybe he was just being stupid, maybe he was just too tired and worn down right then. Maybe she was right and tomorrow would be better. “Yeah, I know.”

“You coming back down?”

“No, I think I need a bit of space tonight,” he told her. “I’m going to stay up here a while longer.” When she hesitated to leave, he waved his hand toward the ledge of the roof. “Go on, there’s no need for both of us to be doing a gargoyle impression tonight.”

“You know, I miss those things. Dome architects have no sense of imagination.”

Eren smiled while he watched his sister descend back to the ground, then let his thoughts drift to back to the past, to all of the wonderful buildings they’d seen over the years, the cathedral and mosques, the skyscrapers and castles and everything inbetween. So much had been destroyed, both deliberately and by neglect, and he supposed that the one good thing about the ‘others’ were that they had seen some of humanity’s greatest achievements before they had turned into dust – Eren certainly didn’t rate the domes up there with Notre Dame or the Taj Mahal.

He was trying to figure out if there really was any significant architectural styles between the domes when he heard the impact sound of a rappelling dart sinking into concrete, followed by the soft ‘whir’ of the wire winding up. Pushing up onto his elbows, he waited out the arrival of whoever was about to disturb his solitude. When Levi’s head appeared over the edge of the roof, he wasn’t too surprised except that he had expected the man to want to be alone tonight. Judging from the way that Levi’s grey eyes widened upon seeing him and then narrowed as if annoyed, Eren figured out that maybe the man hadn’t planned on finding any company up here.

Levi paused at the edge of the roof for a few seconds before pulling himself over and onto the tilted surface. While he did so, Eren sat up, his arms resting on his knees, and waited to see what would happen next.

******* 


	15. Looking too Closely

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back! Had a lovely time at Yaoi Con, sorry for the break in posting. BUT, hopefully this chapter makes up for it in some small way! :-)
> 
> Hope to be back to the weekly/Sunday updates, at least for the next few weeks. Next chapter will be another flashback - or, well, a mostly flashback (it will jump a little to the present and play a BIG part in the plot) and focus on Ymir and Krista. Hopefully the plotpoint goodness will make up for where we leave off in this chapter....
> 
> Thank you so much for the kudos and comments! Love reading what you think of the story so far.  
> *******
> 
> ***NOTE - some formatting issues have been fixed in this chapter! Please let me know if you find any other problems, if you haven't noticed, I'm lacking a beta....

Eren continued to watch Levi hesitate to sit for a few seconds before he gestured about to the roof. “It’s a pretty big surface – I can always go sit somewhere else if you like.” 

It seemed like it took the man a little bit to figure out what Eren was referring to, since Levi continued to frown for a moment before shaking his head. “No, it’s okay. Should have figured that you’d be up here anyway.” He surprised Eren by reaching into the back of the black pants he was wearing to pull out what appeared to be a folded bit of cloth and began to unfurl it, until he had a large enough square of fabric that he could sit upon. The bastard really was a clean freak, Eren thought to himself, watching as the man smoothed out the material a couple of feet away from him until it met some internal standard and then sat down on it. Levi still appeared tired, his handsome face bearing lines of exhaustion that normally weren’t apparent, the dark circles of fatigue more pronounced beneath his eyes and his shoulders slumped forward. Instead of the Freedom Corps uniform, he was dressed in a white t-shirt and an overlarge grey sweater a few shades darker than his eyes. 

“I needed a break from everyone,” Eren tried to explain as he hugged his knees to his chest. “It’s just…” How did you put into words that after so many years of seeing the people around you die, you got so tired of dealing with the living? Of wondering who would be next to be gone?

Levi grunted as he rested his left elbow on his knee and then propped his chin up on his left hand. “It’s so damn annoying, how everyone reacts right about now. If I hear one more moron tell me how sorry they are, I’m going to kick their head in.” 

Eren couldn’t help but chuckle upon hearing that, and earned a sullen glare as a result. “Sor – uhm, I thought that threat was reserved for me.” 

Levi continued to glare for a few more seconds before shaking his head, a hint of a smile on his thin lips. “You’re not quite that special, brat.” He took to staring out across the base’s courtyard as some of the tension eased from his shoulders. “I should be used to this by now – sending messages to their family, dealing with the rest of the squad, training their replacements…” 

“You never get used to it.” Eren rested his chin upon his knees and closed his eyes for a few seconds. “At least, I’d worry about it if you did. But I’ve lived… sometimes I think I’ve lived too long,” he admitted in a quiet voice as he felt each and every one of those years weighing upon him, as suddenly his skin became so tight and his joints ached too much to move. Psychosomatic, was what Armin called it, something that was in Eren’s mind and not his body, but he swore sometimes that his age really did press upon him. “And each time a death like this makes me wonder why Mikasa and I don’t just stay far away from everyone else.” It was funny – it never weighed him down when *he* was the one doing the killing. Maybe someday he’d find a shrink who wouldn’t be freaked out by his mere existence and uncover a reason for that fact. 

“I thought you said that death was a part of your life.” Levi didn’t come across as derisive; he twisted about enough to give Eren his full attention, his chin still propped up on his hand and his eyes more heavy-lidded than normal. 

“It is.” Eren ran his right hand through his hair until it rested against the back of his neck. “I just don’t accept it when someone dies because of me.” When it appeared as if Levi was going to say something, Eren shook his head. “Don’t – you think Gunther would still be dead tonight if Mikasa and I hadn’t come to this dome? If we had fled as soon as we realized that the others were here and searching for us?” He struggled to keep his voice down, aware that sound could carry below. 

Levi continued to regard him for a minute or two, barely moving during that time except to blink and breathe. “I think we’re all living on borrowed time, in the Corps.” He let out a slow breath and rubbed his free hand along the shaved part of his hair, his head bowed as if he had given in to the exhaustion just then. “I think that Gunther wouldn’t be blaming you right now, if he could say anything.” 

“Yeah.” Eren had heard something similar over the years – from Mikasa, from Armin, from people he’d considered friends and acquaintances… he still felt guilty as hell for what he saw as blood on his hands. What it came down to was the fact that the others killed whomever they viewed as being close to Eren and Mikasa, either as a means to extract information or as a warning, or even just to hurt them or break them. 

Levi let out another long breath, the end of it sounding a bit like a twisted, broken laugh. “Besides, it was my call tonight. I chose to take him out with us, I let him deal with that big vampire on his own. Think the blame lands on me.”

Recalling how broken, how worn down Levi had been earlier tonight, Eren knew that the man was shouldering all the blame. He shifted onto his knees to face him and shook his head. “No – Gunther chose to do that all by himself. Your team is really good, Levi. Don’t sell them short. They’re not going to just stand there doing nothing if there’s a challenge to face.” He thought back to the day’s practice session. “I don’t think anyone in the Freedom Corps is just going to do nothing if they come across those three.” He slumped back onto his heels and ran his fingers over his gauntlet. “That’s why maybe it was a mistake that-“

He was startled when Levi reached over to grab hold of his ruined and filthy jacket. “What, that it was a mistake that you joined us? That you thought we could fight together?” Levi’s grey eyes blazed with anger and he gave Eren a rough shake. “Don’t insult us like that. Maybe we’re just puny humans, but we’re not useless!”

“But isn’t that what you’re saying about Gunther,” Eren pointed out, his hands rising up to grasp Levi’s. “Aren’t you sitting here taking the blame for him, taking away his choices, his ability to fight?” When Levi stared at him in shock, Eren slumped forward until his head rested against the captain’s right shoulder. “Look, all I know is that I’m so tired of the people around me being killed while I live on. I want it to end – I want to kill those bastards and I want some peace for Mikasa and myself, for Armin to live up to his potential. I don’t even know if I care about the rest of the world at this point.”

“And you feel that we’re just going to keep on dying?”

The anger had returned to Levi’s deep voice, forcing Eren to glance up. He gazed into those grey eyes, eyes that could be so cold yet searing at the same time, and wondered why the thought of Reiner or Annie killing *this* man hurt so damn much. “Yeah, I do. Tonight brought that fact home. Maybe I didn’t think it through back then, maybe I already saw you guys dying in that market and thought it would be fine, but I know you now.” He knew *Levi*, and it was a matter of time before the trio managed to kill the annoying bastard, no matter that he was the Freedom Corps’ best fighter.

Levi made that tsk’ing sound of his, which was really starting to annoy Eren, and let go of Eren’s jacket as if it disgusted him – which was probably the truth considering its ratty state. “At least we’re doing something other than running, you shitty little brat. You think I’m afraid of dying? It’s a reality that’s stared me in the face since I was a kid. At least this way I’m doing it on my own terms and for some damn reason.” He sneered at Eren as he pressed his hand against Eren’s chest, right against the spot where the bag which held the key to the safety deposit box and the diamond ring rested. “You running away for any other reason than you’re afraid?”

Angered by the taunt, it was Eren’s turn to grab hold and pull the asshole in close. “No, I want to run away to *save* some lives, you stupid bastard. Didn’t you hear Reiner back there? If I stay, they’re only going to keep going after you guys!”

“And you really think that if you run that they’ll leave us alone? That they won’t pull a Ragako or Utgard to show you what happens if you don’t stay so they can catch your dumb ass all the quicker?”

The question caught Eren off-guard; his hands clenched in Levi’s white shirt, the material soft and warm beneath his fingers. “I…” He hadn’t considered that option, not when any other time the trio and their brethren had chased after him and Mikasa. Yet this time… this time the vampires did seem determined as hell to catch them one way or another. “You don’t know that for certain,” he answered, his voice sounding weak even to his own ears.

“Yeah, it’s just my life and everyone else’s you’re gambling with if you’re wrong.” Levi reached out to grab a handful of Eren’s hair and gave it a sharp tug. “Is there a working brain in here or just shit?”

“Dammit, I’m trying to keep people from dying! That’s always involved fighting or running in the past, not-“

“Not thinking, obviously,” Levi finished for him in a succinct manner, his fingers still tangled in Eren’s hair. “I can see why you’re counting on Armin so much to get those answers for you.”

Eren wanted to strangle the smug bastard just then – screw Reiner getting the chance to kill him. “Like you can do that much better? Seems to me that your answer to everything is kick it in the head, not apply reason,” he spat out through clenched teeth. “You think that’s going to work in this situation? Try that with Annie and she’ll snap your legs in half before she twists off your head.”

Levi gave him a narrowed look for several seconds, his pale skin glowing as the lights above them dimmed. “Why do you care so much? I’m just going to die on you in one way or another.”

Yes, he would. If Annie or the others didn’t get him, some Malform probably would one day when Levi eventually let slip his guard or began to slow down due to age or injuries. On the chance that the man didn’t die while fighting the undead, then old age or illness awaited him, the same fate as the rest of humanity. Eren had seen it happen so many times before – well, he’d stood back and glimpsed it from afar as he’d moved on, as he’d always done and come back decades or even centuries later…. The mere thought of death taking Levi away from him made his chest seize in agony and a gasp catch in his throat, made him jerk the bastard forward as he closed his eyes and pressed their lips together.

At first he wasn’t truly aware of what he’d just done, his body moving on automatic as he sought to push away the pain with something better, with something that would drive away the bad and make him forget things for a while. Sex was good, was a way to shut off his mind and shut out the world for a little while, and he *wanted* Levi. He didn’t think he realized just how much he really wanted Levi until he tasted the man, until he felt the rough lips part against his and that hand tighten even more in his hair. Moaning in desire, Eren shifted forward in desperation until he was on Levi’s lap so he could deepen the kiss, his tongue seeking forward into Levi’s mouth, his fingers sliding along the undercut of Levi’s hair to the neatly razored part beneath. He was just grasped roughly around the waist and pulled tight against Levi’s muscular body when just as quickly he was shoved away, falling backwards onto the roof to land hard on his ass.

“What the hell!” Eren fumbled to sit up, his abraded hands already healing.

“That’s what I want to know!” Levi scrambled to his feet while he wiped at his mouth with the back of his right hand as if to clean it, his eyes narrowed once more. “What, there’s no shitty vampires around here so you figure it’s time to move on to something new? Want another notch in your belt so you’re tackling Corps’ captains now?” He almost sounded hysterical with the way he was spitting out the venomous words, but there was too much spite in them for that. “After you fuck me are you heading down to Erwin’s office to give him a go, too? Or you saving him until you make your way through all of the captains first? Is Hange lucky enough to-”

Eren stared up at the asshole for a few seconds and let the verbal abuse spill out, too stunned to do anything but take it. While Levi ranted on, he braced himself, his anger building with each word, with each second that judgmental look continued, until he had enough. Without any warning he pounced, pulling back just enough with his strength to keep from breaking the bastard’s neck as he punched Levi in the face. “Go to *hell*,” he told him as he continued past, not looking back as he heard the bastard hit the roof from the impact of the blow.

Uncaring if anyone saw him, he leapt over the edge of the roof and dropped down, using his claws at the last minute to slow his descent. Once on the ground, he stalked into the building, doing his best to regain control of himself before he completely ‘fanged’ out. He had to flex his claws a few times before they would entirely retract, and he could still feel his fangs if he pressed his tongue against his teeth – it was a good thing that it was late enough that the hallways were mostly deserted.

Returning to the common room which housed the newer recruits, he wasn’t surprised to find most of them now asleep – what did puzzle him was that Mikasa’s bed was empty, as was Armin’s. He continued past the bunk beds to the ‘living area’ set aside for lounging around, a cluster of couches and low tables where everyone congregated to talk or share entertainment on their datapads. Still up for the night were Mikasa, Armin, Krista and Ymir, talking in hushed voices so they didn’t wake anyone else.

“Ah, so the anti-social one returns,” Armin commented when Eren joined them. “Haven’t you taken a shower yet?”

Suddenly aware that he was still wearing his ruined uniform, Eren shrugged and removed his torn jacket. “In a little bit.” He dropped it to the floor and then knelt beside it, his head level with Mikasa’s lap. “Why are you still up?” Mikasa and Ymir still being awake, he could understand, but Armin and Krista? He leaned against Mikasa’s leg and almost purred when she began to comb her fingers through his tangled hair.

“We’re too tired to sleep.” Armin shook his head when Eren rolled his eyes at the old saying. “A lot’s happened today. Maybe we’re just trying to take it all in.” He had circles under his blue eyes and his face appeared a bit pinched.

“That’s no excuse to not sleep, especially after you….” Eren motioned to his left wrist with his right hand, where he could still see a slight bruise on his friend’s arm.

“Hmm, I was just returning the favor.” Armin rubbed at his wrist and shook his head again. “I’m okay. What’s going on with you? We didn’t think we’d see you until morning.”

“Yes, why are you back so soon?” Mikasa, her fingers still busy stroking through Eren’s hair, used them to tug him closer so she could sniff at his neck. “And why do you smell so strongly of the Short Bastard?”

Why was this all about him so suddenly? Feeling some of his anger from before returning, Eren groaned and rubbed at his face with his left hand, which prompted Mikasa to let go of his hair.

“Eren?”

“Oh, he’s blushing! Something tells me that Rebel has a story to tell!”

“Fuck you, Ymir.” Eren dropped his hand so he could glare in the pest’s direction, and then turned the look at a smirking Armin. “And fuck *you*, too.”

“What?” Armin struggled a moment to sit up straighter in the couch, where he’d been lounging against the corner just a moment earlier. “Why me?”

“Because it was *you* who said that the man liked me! Your bright idea that I should *emotionally grow up* and have a *relationship* with him.” As Eren spoke, Mikasa first gasped and then went incredibly still, while Ymir’s jaw dropped and Krista’s blue eyes grew wider while she glanced back and forth between Eren, Armin and Mikasa. “So yeah, it’s *your* fucking fault when I kiss the guy and he basically calls me the world’s biggest slut who’s only trying to fuck him since there’s no vampires around and I need to check off my ‘let’s screw the entire Freedom Corps’ scorecard!” Eren was hissing toward the end in an effort to keep from waking up the entire room.

Armin stared at him for several seconds after the tirade, his expression inscrutable, and then he huffed. “Wow, go figure. He really is even more of an emotional idiot than you are.”

Only Mikasa’s quick grab at the back of Eren’s shirt kept Eren from throttling his dear friend just then. “I’ll show you-“

Ymir’s braying laugh cut off Eren’s tirade before it could really start. “Yeah, but Eren, you *are* a slut!” She laughed some more, tucked into the opposite corner of a couch than Armin with a sleepy-looking Krista held in her arms. “I mean, you’re willing to screw just about any guy if the price is right, and any cute guy for free. I sure as hell haven’t heard you complain about the label be-“

Krista twisted around to look up at her girlfriend while grabbing onto the arms that were wrapped around her waist. “Uhm, Ymir?”

“-not now, sweetie, I’m talking to Eren about how-“

“*Yes*, now.” A very displeased look came over her pretty face, and Ymir finally seemed to realize that Krista no longer seemed happy. When Ymir glanced down at her, Krista continued. “I think it’s a good idea to refrain your comments to when you only have something constructive and polite to say.”

“But you don’t understand, I’ve known Eren for a very long time and over those years, he’s slept with a *lot* of men. I mean, we’re talking about a *lot*. He should be teaching classes, he’s such a sl-“

This time, Krista reached up to grab onto her lover’s jaw to reinforce her point. “Now, I don’t happen to find this as something terribly constructive or polite, do you,” she asked in almost as scary a voice as Mikasa, with a *too* cheerful grin on her face. “No, it isn’t. So I suggest you sit here and listen until you do have something polite and helpful to say, all right?” Then she released her hold on her now suitably cowed girlfriend.

Wow, maybe it would be worth it to turn the girl if she could keep Ymir in check like that, Eren thought to himself.

“I can’t believe that Captain Ackerman would be such an asshole.” Armin tugged at the sleeves of his light grey jersey until they covered his hands. “What were you guys doing to lead up to the kiss?”

Eren sighed and tucked back the strands of hair falling onto his face, missing Mikasa’s touch from before – his sister now was sitting very still on the couch. “He came up to the roof to get some peace and quiet but ended up staying when he saw me. We talked a bit about Gunther’s death and stuff, and… I don’t know, I guess a part of me hated the thought of something bad happening to him and I just reacted to it. He seemed into it for a few seconds, and the next thing I know he’s shoving me away and insulting the hell out of me. So I punched him and left.”

Armin winced upon hearing that last bit, while Ymir resumed smirking and Krista buried her face in her hands. “Eren… you really need to learn to control your temper,” Armin proclaimed with a slight moan.

“But he deserved it!”

“Yeah, he did, but he’s also your superior officer.” Armin looked as if he wanted to say more than that, but gave up after a few seconds and shook his head.

A bit surprised that his sister was being so quiet, Eren tilted his head back to see her reaction to the news, and frowned when he saw that she was still sitting there perfectly still. “Mikasa?”

She didn’t answer him, and a moment later she stood up in a rush and began to walk away.

“Mikasa?”

“I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going?” Armin reached out to grab her arm.

“To kill the Short Bastard,” she told him without looking down.

Oh *hell* no, this was not what they needed just then. Eren scrambled to his feet the same time that Armin did, and reached his sister in time to keep her from taking another step forward. “You can’t do that!”

“Why not?” She stared back at him, her eyes glowing and a hint of fangs peeking past her lips. “He insulted you!” Her right hand reached out to touch his cheek. “He hurt you.”

“Because it’s not worth it.” He reached up to touch her as well. “He’s not worth it, Mikasa. I’m just upset – I’ll be better in the morning.”

She shook her head. “He has no right saying those things to you.”

“I know, but we need him.” He ran his hand down her arm and gave her left wrist a shake. “He’s the best fighter in the Corps – don’t take that away from them just because he’s also an asshole.”

“An emotionally immature asshole,” Armin murmured.

Not sure that was helping the situation, Eren shot his friend a quick glare before focusing back on his sister. “Look, it’s not the first time I’ve been turned down and it won’t be the last. As much as I adore you for looking out for me, it’s not a good enough reason to kill the asshole, okay?”

She was quiet for a few more seconds before nodding. “All right, I’ll let him live for now. But I’m not forgetting about this.”

Great, so the man would probably get his ass kicked when he least suspected it – and Eren couldn’t find it in him to really care right now. “Okay.”

Mikasa gazed back at him intently for several heartbeats before stepping back. “Good.”  
  
“All right then. I think maybe I’m finally ready for sleep, now. Drama always wears me out.” Armin’s shoulders slumped and he took a few shuffling steps toward the sleeping area. “How about everyone else?”  
  
Ymir let out an exaggerated sigh while helping Krista to stand up. “Well, if the floor show is over for the night, I guess we’ll head off to bed, too.”

“We really need to make better friends,” Eren complained to his sister as he followed her to the bunk beds, where he collected a change of clothes. “I’ll be back once I clean off.”

For a moment he thought that Mikasa was going to insist to come with him before she nodded and went over to her own bed. “All right. Be back soon.”  
  
“I will.” At this point, all Eren wanted was to wash off and then get some rest. The sooner this day ended, the better. Tomorrow *couldn’t* be so bad.

*******

Levi lay stunned on top of the roof, flat on his back and his left eye throbbing from the force of the punch. Dammit… the brat had a seriously mean right hook…. Forcing himself to sit up, he gently touched his rapidly swelling eye and swore at the pain that radiated from the area. Didn’t it figure that he lived through an attack from two vampires, only to nearly go blind from… from….

What the *hell* had that kid been thinking? What the *hell* had Levi been thinking, to kiss him back? For a moment it had been just like his dream that morning, Eren in his arms and so fucking eager, his body so warm and pliant against Levi’s, and then the little details had begun to creep in – that Eren was still clothed, that they *both* were wearing clothes, that Eren smelled of sweat and blood and dirt, and even more damning, that he tasted of blood. It had finally clicked in Levi’s mind that something wasn’t right and he’d pushed the brat away, ashamed at his lack of control. He should know better by now, should know that letting people in close was a mistake and letting someone like Eren Jaeger in would… well, ‘cluster fuck’ wouldn’t begin to describe it. So he did what he did best and drove the brat away. Pressing his fingertips against the left side of his face until he hissed in pain, he’d say he’d done a damn fine job of just that.

Forcing his recalcitrant body to move – it had been one hell of a physically trying day, not to even mention an emotionally one – he made his way to the edge of the roof and stepped over it, using his gauntlet at the last minute to land safely on the ground. He went inside the building and headed toward his quarters when he surprised himself by changing course down another hallway instead – all he had waiting for him there was a bunch of paperwork that he didn’t feel like going through just yet, especially when about half of it had to do with Gunther’s death. No, might as well seek out some sort of distraction, and he had a perfect one in mind.

He didn’t bother with knocking, not when the pest rarely reciprocated, and he somehow knew that he’d find her working late after his meeting earlier with Erwin; upon entering Hange’s lab, he walked over to an empty stool not too far from her workstation and sat down, while she continued to enter information into her computer.

After a couple of minutes, she finished typing and looked up, still dressed in her uniform from earlier with a white lab coat tossed over it, her hair mussed in a disorderly ponytail and with dark circles under her eyes. “What are you doing here?” she asked as she pushed her glasses higher up on her nose. “And what the hell happened to your eye?”

Levi barely resisted the urge to touch his face again, since he knew it would just hurt. “Must’ve happened during the fight earlier. You still working on that shit for Erwin and Pixis?”

“Yes – Armin gave me some helpful information that I’m compiling for them, and don’t change the subject.” Hange’s voice grew sharp as she left her station to go over to one of the lab’s mini-fridges, from which she extracted an icepack. After slapping it around a little to break up the crystals inside, she then searched about for a clean towel to wrap it in. “That black eye is still bruising, so it happened recently. You finally push Erwin too far or something? Make the cleaning crew snap after calling them incompetent shitstains one too many times?”

“They are incompetent – that’s why I refuse to let them inside my quarters.” Levi frowned as he accepted the icepack and was careful to inspect it before he raised it to his sore eye. “I found dust after-“

“I’m not about to listen to you rant about that topic yet *again*, Sweetie.” Hange leaned back on her elbows against her workstation, her expression conveying just how much of a martyr she felt herself to be – which was a hell of a lot. “Now, who gave you the hell of a shiner – I want to thank them.”

Levi lowered the wrapped icepack enough so he could glare at her with both eyes, even if one of them was mostly swollen shut. “Go fuck off and die, Shitty Glasses.” When all Hange did was smile at him for the insult, he huffed and resumed icing his abused eye. “It was Eren,” he admitted with some reluctance, realizing that this would never end until the truth came out.

As it was, Hange’s shocked reaction almost made it worthwhile. “Eren? Cutie Eren hit you?” She stared at him for several seconds before laughing. “Oh *no*! I wish I’d seen that! What did you do to deserve being hit by your cutie?”

Okay, maybe it wasn’t. Levi’s glare went up a notch and he debated throwing the icepack at the bitch before deciding that it was actually making his face feel better. “What did my ‘cutie’ do? Well, the psychotic little shit just grabbed me, shoved his tongue down my throat as if I was a promiscuous little fuck like him and then had the gall to punch me when I pointed out that I’m not the Corps’ whore – that position is obvious being filled by him, considering his past.” There was a crunching sound as he clenched the icepack in his left hand, the chill of it as biting as the words that spilled out. “Guess he didn’t like me pointing out that shit to him, but I’m not just going to stand there and let him use me like he’s used everything else with a dick. Thinks he can just bat those eyes of his and I’ll queue up for his ass? He’s even more of a fucking moron than I figured.”

Hange stood across from him, her gaze as assessing upon him as it was on any of her experiments: steady and unemotional. She remained still for a minute and then straightened up, her movements almost languid as she approached.

“It’s a fucking bother, it is,” Levi continued. “I won’t have it affect the squad, him acting like a dog in heat. I’ll- what the hell!”

Hange kept up the slow pace of her approach until she was within arm’s reach, and then had casually snaked out her arm to smack him in the back of the head with an impressive amount of force.

“Why the *fuck* did you do that?” Levi tossed the icepack at the lunatic, which Hange caught with ease, her expression still unreadable.

Taking a step back – just enough so she was out of reach – Hange shook her head. “Are you done now? Had enough of badmouthing Eren?” When he stared at her in confusion, she threw the icepack back. “Because I’ll tell you why, then. I think you’re being an immense *ass* right now, one of the biggest idiots I’ve ever known and I’ve met a lot of them while dealing with the MP and various Chairmen and Ministers.”

“Listen, you crazy bi-“

“No, *you* listen,” Hange snapped back in a rare show of ire, her brown eyes blazing behind her glasses. “Right now things are rough – we’ve been over this before and the shit is getting even deeper.” For a moment her expression mellowed. “You just lost Gunther, which would be bad enough, but you lost him to one hell of a nasty fuck of a foe, and we have Erwin plotting on top of that.” Just as quickly, the anger made a return. “But that’s no excuse for you to be so stupid and to insult Eren,” she insisted, her hands fisted on her narrow hips.

Levi stared at her for several seconds, more than a little stunned. Then he shook his head before he put the icepack back to good use. “How the hell is it insulting when it’s the truth? You heard the brat – he admitted to fucking who the hell knows how many people!”

Hange let out an exasperated sigh and threw her hands into the air. “Who the hell among us are innocents, huh?” A wry grin tugged at the corner of her lips as she gestured in Levi’s direction. “Well, it’s been so long for *you* that you might as well have your cherry back, but I doubt that more than one or two of our rawest recruits are virgins so what’s the hang-up?”

Rather stung by the cherry comment – so what if he hadn’t found some random fuck in a while – Levi sneered as much as he was able while having a pack of ice pressed to a good bit of his face. “I’m not talking about losing your virginity, I’m talking screwing vampires. Two at a time, at that, and other deviant stuff.” Why the hell was he discussing this stuff? Dammit, this is what came out of talking to Hange.

“Hmm, but it makes utter sense if you’re dealing with an increased lifespan – well, maybe not the vampires, but then again if you counter all of itinto a longer life, I’m sure it means more variables.” Hange fell into that fucking ‘science’ mode of hers that could make you want to bash your head against the nearest hard surface to avoid listening to her ramble on. Considering that Levi’s head had had enough of hard surfaces that night… yeah, he was screwed. “So Eren has dealt with a lot of ‘variables’ in his life, even when dealing with sex. It’s completely understandable.” She tilted her head down to look at Levi over the rim of her glasses. “Especially when you take into account that he grew up after a major collapse of society. As we *also* discussed previously, things were very difficult back then and a lot of taboos were suspended. I would suspect that someone who grew up in a dome like Tartarus should understand it a bit.”

Levi found himself dropping the icepack to the floor and jumping up from the stool in one smooth motion. “Don’t you fucking say anything about Tartarus,” he warned Hange. “Just… don’t.” He’d gotten out of there – he’d done his best to get Farlan and Isabel out of there, too, before that place had eaten them out and spit them out. For all the shitty luck it had done those two.

Hange looked at him with blatant pity and held up her hands in a sign of surrender. “Okay, I won’t, but I just think that you’re being too hard on Eren and it’s for a rather obvious reason. You have a good idea of why he’s like he is, as least when it comes to relationships in the past. So why the hell did you insult him for kissing you, and are you tearing him down to me?”

“Because he’s a sl-“

“Call him a slut again and I will run you through with your own blades, I swear upon destroying all of my research that I will,” Hange stated in her most cheerful voice. “Now, try again.”

Levi doubted that she could do it… well, mostly doubted. Staring at the crazed woman and the way she continued to smile at him after making that threat… maybe it wasn’t in his best interest to put it to the test….

“Because….” *Fuck*, perhaps he would prefer to be run through with his own blades than deal with this touchy-feely shit. Maybe he could get some more blood from Eren before Hange did it and heal quickly…. “Because it’s all fucked up, all right?” He glared at the massive pain in his ass as he spoke. “The fucking brat comes into my life and it all gets fucked up – even *more* fucked.”

He didn’t think it was possible for Hange’s smile to become any brighter, but it did. “There, you see? I told you Eren wasn’t a slut! A little promiscuous, yes, but that’s going to work in your favor, Sweetie! We’re going to get you laid for the first time in forever!” She jumped up and down as she pumped her fists into the air! “Yes, tap that ass!”

That was it – Levi was going to wake Erwin’s ass up and tell the man that they needed a new Captain and head of research, that it was time to use Hange as bait for the good of the Corps. “Yeah, whatever.” He turned on his heel to leave before this conversation got even worse.

“No!” Hange snatched at his arm and pulled him back. “I’m serious! Can’t you see that you really like Eren? And that he likes you if he made a move like that? This is going to work out, I promise you!”

“Hange….” Levi yanked his arm free and then went to rub at his face, the day’s events catching up to him and making him feel exhausted, before he remembered about his eye just in time. “You’ve finally, *truly* cracked. Why would Eren kissing me mean anything, considering his past?”

Hange rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Because I know for a fact that he hasn’t kissed anyone else – Moblit is damn good at keeping track of the gossip for me. In fact, I know that he barely speaks to anyone other than you, outside of his sister, Armin, Ymir and Krista. So that makes you the special someone he goes off to have tea with, or chats with up on the roof, or has given a nickname.” Hange looked ready to grab hold of his arm again but stopped short after being given a warning scowl. “You’re the only one he’s let get close – you, the guy he didn’t kill that time back in the alley. Which is odd, because when I told Ymir about how the two of you met, she seemed shocked over that ‘slip’ on Eren’s part. They’re so not big on letting anyone discover their secret.”

Levi didn’t see the point of this conversation; he folded his arms over his chest and sighed, regretful that he hadn’t gone to his office and dealt with the paperwork after all. “So? I’m the brat’s buddy, how is that relevant to any of this?”

Just then, Hange actually appeared ready to go fetch his blades or something, what with the way she was gritting her teeth together and her eyes narrowed in a rare show of anger. “Oh my fucking- GAH!” She picked up a datapad from the workstation and actually *slammed* it down onto the hard surface with enough force that it shattered, causing Levi to jump in shock at the noise. “Are you always this dense? Are you listening to me at all?”

“No, you raving lunatic-“

“Just *shut* *up*!” Hange once more grabbed onto his arms despite the nasty looks, and Levi was so stunned by her brash actions that he didn’t shake off the hold. “When’s the last time you spent the night talking to someone, let alone someone you just met? When’s the last time I’ve heard you rant and rave so much about someone like you do about Eren? Why do you even care if he fucks half the Corps? *Think*, Levi!” She leaned in until their faces were just an inch or two apart, until he cringed at having someone so close to his personal space yet didn’t lash out. “You’re beyond infatuated with that ‘brat’, and it’s clear that he’s the same about you. Now *do* something about it, you repressed moron!”

As if she was done screaming at him, Hange stepped back with a very pleased air about her, a huge grin on her idiotic face and her hands clasped behind her back. Meanwhile, Levi felt his temper begin to rise the more he looked in her direction.

“’Repressed moron’?”

“Aw, you know I adore you, Sweetie, but yes, ‘repressed moron.” Hange fussed with the hair falling onto her glasses, her expression gradually becoming nervous the longer that Levi glared. “I mean, you have one hell of a cutie kissing you and you make him mad enough to deck you? You could have at least gotten a hand job or something before resetting to your default of senseless violence.”

Levi was *really* beginning to regret leaving his weapons back in his quarters, the threat from earlier aside. He took a step forward and inwardly smiled when Hange retreated from him. “My sex life-“

“*What* sex life,” Hange muttered as she hunched near her workstation, her arms folded over her chest in a defensive manner.

“*My* sex life is my own damn business, you shitty lunatic.” Levi jabbed his right hand in her direction before he jerked his fingers through his hair, pausing to massage for a moment at the undercut to help stave off the burgeoning headache he felt. “As is what I do or don’t do with Eren.”

“Then why come here to bitch about him, hmm?” Hange’s indefatigable sense of know-it-all rose from the grave once again. “Just admit it, you’re floundering when it comes to figuring him out and how to handle him, and you need help. You *suck* at relationships. Which is why you just need to ignore whatever that little psychotic voice inside your head is telling you to do right now and let someone in for once.”

“Right, when we’ve vampires in the fucking dome, after we’ve lost one of our best fighters and Erwin’s in full plot-mode.” Levi huffed as he looked around for another datapad he could smash as well. “Why not take some time to indulge in fucking around, and with a brat who’s two seconds away from breaking the seal to run for the hills?” There wasn’t a datapad, but an empty beaker made a rather satisfying sound as he picked it up and threw it against the nearest wall.

Hange watched him vent a bit of frustration and even handed him another beaker to be broken. “Levi… maybe now *is* the best time.” When he stared at her as if she truly had snapped, she gave him a sad smile. “Listen to me – I mean it. I believe that we all need something to fight for if we’re going to do our best, and you… you desperately need something.” She looked away, down at the broken datapad while she spoke. “You need someone to fight for, and I’m not certain that Erwin and I are enough.”

He held the beaker in his hand for a few seconds and debated whether or not to throw it; he used to have Farlan and Isabel, and there hadn’t been anything he wouldn’t do to keep them safe, to try to build a future for them. It had almost happened, it had seemed so close…. Then the Corps had become his new family, his new home, and he was good at what he did, was one of the best if not *the* best. He had friends here – Hange, Erwin and Mike – and he cared about his squad. Yet a part of him waited for them to die, because that’s what happened in the Corps. You did your best and gave your all and knew that you were only staving off the inevitable for so long.

Then came along this improbable brat, this… this seeming kid with the too innocent face and those gorgeous eyes and the snarky attitude. Maybe he wasn’t the brightest or the most talented individual whom Levi had ever encountered, but he was determined as hell and loyal, was a confusing, bewitching amalgam of so many traits that drew Levi’s attention back to him all the time. Just like his hair and eyes reminded Levi of all the time, Eren Jaeger was like the luxury goods Levi had heard about while growing up, was like a fine cup of tea and a jar of honey – something only the truly rich could afford, something that Levi had strived to possess for himself and become addicted to once he’d achieved them on his own through whatever means.

“You want me to take a chance on a fucking brat who has a bunch of vampires after his ass,” Levi continued, the beaker held clenched in his hand so hard that he was surprised that it hadn’t shattered yet. “Where are *your* blades, you Shitty Glasses, so I can run *you* through?”

Hange laughed, the sound nervous and high-pitched. “Well, yeah. Look at it this way – you don’t have to worry about him dying on you!” She even clapped her hands together for emphasis.

That’s it – he’d had enough of her ‘advice’ for the night. Levi threw the beaker at the lunatic, only to have Hange duck in time and let out a loud wail. He didn’t stick around to listen to her complain about how ‘mean’ he was, he left before she could spout anymore stupidity and returned to his quarters. However, he was stuck with what she’d said in his head for the rest of the night.

*******

Eren followed Petra down the hallway to the storeroom for another ‘clandestine’ training session, a bit apprehensive about seeing Levi after how things had ended the night before. Would the man be furious over the punch? Was he still upset over the kiss? Oh hell, please don’t let it be another surreptitious grope and rub session like the day before….

They took the steps to the lower level and Eren shook himself from his internal misery enough to realize that Petra was a lot quieter than normal this morning, lacking her usual smile and possessing circles beneath her amber eyes. “Uhm, are you all right?”

She started at the question and offered him a weak smile. “I’m okay,” she answered, her voice quieter than normal. “It’s just… we were up late last night, because of Gunther.”

Oh. Eren was quiet for a few seconds and wondered if he should say anything – if he should have done anything last night to pay his respects for the man, whom he’d only known for a short time. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know that there was anything for him.”

Petra reached over to pat his right arm. “It’s all right, it was a small gathering of those who knew him best,” she explained. “It’s something we do when… well, it’s a custom, I guess.”

He supposed that they had perfected it by now, considering the death rate of Freedom Corps, and had a better respect for the considering how well they handled the high risk nature of their job. “He… he was a good fighter.”

“I know.” Petra’s smile wavered for a moment. “We’ll just have to keep getting better and hope to avenge him soon.”

There was nothing that Eren could say just then – he was afraid that Petra and the others were fools for hoping to take on Annie, Reiner and Bertolt, but it was their job. He could just hope that when it came time to fight the others, that he and Mikasa were there to take the brunt of the attack.

They reached the room and Petra keyed the door open, so he steeled himself to enter and find out how Levi was going to react to him today – how the rest of the private squad was going to react. Walking into the improvised training room, he found Erd in the middle warming up and Olou off to the side talking to Levi.

Olou gave him a curt nod in greeting while walking past to meet up with Petra, leaving Eren to deal with Levi alone. He noticed that the captain had some bruising around his left eye, which must be from the punch. Eren winced a little but forced himself to greet the man. “Good morning.”

Levi eyed him for a few seconds before grunting softly. “That remains to be seen.” He didn’t sound angry or anything, just his usual pissy self and he met Eren’s gaze head on. “I told them all about how Gunther died, so we’re going to practice you leaping at us from above. Erwin’s going to do his best to figure out a way to get us some private time so we can practice with rappelling gear, but until then, we need to improvise how those bastards use their speed and agility to take us down.”

That sounded good in theory, but all of this was going to wear Eren down when he still hadn’t fed properly after last night. “Okay, but I’m going to need to go hunting within the next night or two,” he warned. “Bertolt really messed me up and I’m still not fully recovered.”

“You look fine.” Levi’s brows drew together and he made that annoyed, tsk’ing sound. “They took you down hard on purpose, I’m not about to let you back out there for a second try right away when you seem nice and *frisky* to me.”

And the bastard just had to bring up last night, didn’t he? Eren grit his teeth together and wondered if he could get away with punching Levi in the right eye. “That’s because Armin and Krista donated some blood to me last night, *Sir*.”

“You really can drink human blood?” Petra, Erd and Olou had gathered near them to listen to the discussion – well, they probably wanted to know about the day’s training, but had overheard everything else. Petra stared at Eren in surprise while Olou fussed with the color of his white shirt as if to protect his neck.

Eren grimaced while he pushed his hands away from his sides and answered Petra’s question. “It’s not preferred – Mikasa and I stick with Malform blood whenever possible, or even that of vampires. Human blood is… well, it’s weak. We get more of a ‘kick’ from other blood drinkers and so don’t have to feed as often. But we’ve taken from volunteers when in a pinch.” Or dealt with a couple of necessary problems….

Levi continued to give him that annoyed stare. “Then you can make due now – we’ll find a few donors to get you through the next week or so.”

Dammit, they were seriously going to listen to Ymir about keeping him inside? Eren was going to strangle her! He scowled at Levi before he shifted a little closer to Erd, feeling the need to annoy someone just then. “What could I *possibly* do to thank those people for helping me out?” He made sure to lower his voice until it was husky and to look at Levi through his lashes while he spoke, his tongue dashing out to wet his bottom lip.

“Considering that they’ll just think they’re donating for the most recent blood drive, you can ‘thank’ them by getting your ass up the nearest wall.” There was a snarl in Levi’s voice as he snatched at Eren’s left wrist and hauled him away from Erd, not stopping until they were across the room. “Off with the blades, you fucking brat.”

“So demanding, Captain Napoleon,” Eren griped, but he did as he was ordered. He handed his weapons to Levi and was surprised when he was openly swatted hard on the ass when he turned toward the wall, so much so that he failed to gain traction for a second. What the hell? Did the short bastard actually just do that in front of the others?

“Now get up there and if I catch you going easy on us, it’ll be my foot next time.”

All right, so that had actually happened. Eren snapped his teeth, his fangs fully extended as his eyes took to gleaming. “How about I get to feed from you if I take you down a dozen times today, hmm?” He was angry enough now to drain the man a couple of pints, human blood or not.

“See, I told you that you were in a frisky mood,” Levi shot back as he took his and Eren’s blades over to a stack of boxes.

“Uhm, did the Captain hit his head yesterday?” Olou asked.

*******

Levi used a towel to wipe at the sweat gathered on his forehead, feeling a bit pleased with himself for the day’s workout. He once more ached all over and was certain that there would be some impressive bruises beneath his clothes – hell, his left arm was probably a lattice of green and purple right now because of all the times he’d used the gauntlet to stave off Eren’s attacks. Yet he’d barely, *barely* avoided that dozen limit of Eren taking him down, even if he hadn’t formally accepted the challenge. Damn if the brat hadn’t been driven today.

Yet he had some hope of the bruises fading quickly, much like his black eye was already well on its way to healing despite how impressive it had looked last night. He supposed that one of the effects of drinking vampire-hybrid blood was that it lingered in the system for a while, which was a very good thing when one considered the last few days. If he’d fought those shitty bastards last night with an injured leg…. Well, Gunther most likely wouldn’t be the only one dead.

He looked over to see Olou sprawled out on the floor, gasping for air and face flushed a splotchy red from exertion. An equally exhausted Petra was hunched over the man and poking him with the toe of her left foot while she cajoled him to stand up so they could leave, while Erd was slowly putting back on his blades in their hilts with trembling hands. His team was broken but slowly recovering, having dealt with loss in the past. He’d have to choose someone else to replace Gunther… but not just yet, not when the loss was so raw, not when they had Eren and Mikasa to hide.

“Good job, today,” he called out, and nodded when the three of them managed to smile back in weary pleasure at the acknowledgement. Gunther’s death had driven them hard to do their best, and they’d given it their all during the training. He could only hope that it would be enough when they took on those undead fuckers again – and he knew how much good hope would do them in a fight.

Against the far wall leaned Eren, his dark hair made darker by sweat but otherwise appearing unaffected by the day’s training. He sipped some water while staring at the floor, a slight frown on his face while he seemed lost in his own thoughts. He’d taken some good hits during the training and given out even better ones, doing what he could to prepare Levi’s squad for that upcoming battle, and judging from his somber air, Levi doubted that he felt them ready to take on the vampires, either.

Motioning to the others that they could leave ahead of him, Levi went over to join the brat. “So, that seemed to go a little better today.” He watched as Erd lingered for a moment, but eventually left with Olou and Petra.

Eren sighed and shook his head, his hair slipping free from being tucked behind his ears and falling forward to frame his face. “They’re still so slow. Olou pauses to gloat, Petra hesitates too much and needs to show more initiative, and Erd… well, he’s all right. But he could be faster.” He placed his hand over his chest for a moment and then moved it up to rub at the back of his neck. “They’re fighting against enemies who’ve centuries of experience and won’t hesitate to take advantage of any weaknesses.”

The brat made some good points. Levi fought the urge to lean over and tuck back those unruly strands. “And what about me? No complaints?”

He thought that he saw a hint of a smile peeking through that dark hair. “Well, who am I to critique the great Captain Napoleon?” The hint smoothed out. “You need to stop worrying about me, you know. If we’re in another fight, you need to focus on taking them down and forget all about me – as long as I can get some blood into me at some point, I’ll heal from anything short of decapitation. And they’ve made it clear that they want me alive. I might not be whole, but I’ll recover.” There was such a weary acceptance in Eren’s voice just then that Levi had to wonder about how much damage Eren had taken over the years that he could blithely write off ‘anything short of decapitation’.

“Yeah, and who has to answer to your sister if I bring you back without any arms or something?”

Eren snorted in response, the sound lacking any true amusement. “I think Mikasa will find it in her heart to forgive you as long as you bring most of me back. If it’s without my legs, then I can’t run away while she bitches me out for being an even more spectacular idiot than usual.”

Levi folded the towel in his hands while he contemplated that image. “I’m beginning to see the appeal of the whole thing.”

“Asshole,” Eren muttered and set the bottle of water aside, yet the insult was lacking any true heat. “Just when I was beginning to feel sorry for punching you last night.” He shook his head then ran his right hand through his hair, momentarily tucking back the long strands. Levi caught a glimpse of his face and confirmed a slight smile.

“You do realize your ass could have gotten in serious trouble for that shit, right?” He glanced over to see how Eren reacted to his teasing and noticed that the smile had gone flat and there was a hard gleam in those huge, luminous eyes. Well, so much for the good mood just now. Feeling a bit like an ass and Hange’s words from last night echoing in his head, Levi clicked his tongue a few times while he dropped the towel to the floor. “Well, I might have said a few things I shouldn’t have, so I’ll overlook it.”

It was almost amusing, catching the brat’s over-reaction to his half-apology out of the corner of his eye. Eren jerked away from the wall, his hair swinging away from his face with the sudden motion as he turned to glance at Levi, then turned to look ahead just as quickly. “Uhm, well, ah, I could have handled it better.” He let out weak laugh for a few seconds and rubbed his hands up and down his arms. “I have a bit of a temper, but that’s no excuse to punch you.”

“Hmm.” Levi looked out around the room – empty save for the two of them – then moved to face Eren. “You seem to have impulse control issues.”

“What?” The brat’s cheeks became flushed, either with embarrassment or anger or both, it was hard to tell, but it made his eyes even more luminous and was rather fetching. Dammit, what the hell was it about this one person? Why couldn’t Levi do the smart thing? “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Poor impulse control. You just say or do things that pop into that idiot head of yours without thinking things through. There’s a time and place for things.” Levi edged closer to Eren, until he had him pinned against the wall. “Unlike last night.”

Eren’s eyes began to glow as he raised his hands to rest against Levi’s chest, yet he didn’t push free just yet. “What, because I kissed you? That might have been impulsive, but it wasn’t like I planned on screwing you then and there! It seemed to me like you enjoyed it at first!”

“I know.” Levi had thought about that damn kiss all night, about his reactions to it – before and after his freak-out, to Hange’s messed up advice and just how fucked up his life had become. “Time and place, brat.” As soon as he’d finished speaking, he leaned in and pressed his mouth against Eren’s before he thought any more.

It gave him some satisfaction to feel Eren’s body stiffen in surprise as he initiated the kiss, to know that *he* could throw the damn brat off-balance for once. He waited to see if Eren would pay him back for last night with another punch or by pushing him away, yet all that happened was Eren let a low moan as his hands settled on Levi’s hips.

Taking that as a sign of assent, Levi deepened the kiss, slipping his tongue past Eren’s parted lips and was relieved when there was no taste of blood today, just a hint of that awful coffee they always served. Eren tugged his hips closer until their bodies fit snug together, not shy in the least in proving to Levi just how ‘happy’ he was about the kiss, about Levi sliding his left thigh between the brat’s legs for him to rub against. Perhaps it was because of the workout from earlier, but Eren’s body felt so warm, radiated so much heat that Levi wanted to just lean into it even more and soak it all up….

He let out a hiss when one of Eren’s hands slid along his hip and cupped his own stiffening cock to give it a ‘friendly’ rub, pulling back enough to break off the kiss. Eren chased after his mouth and bit gently into his bottom lip for a few seconds, not hard enough to break the skin, before letting go.

Eren’s eyes were still glowing, pupils blown and lids half-closed, his cheeks still flushed and his breath a bit ragged. “Seriously,” he panted as he slumped against the wall, his knees bent just enough to make him shorter than Levi. “*This* is the right place?” Damn, but he looked utterly fuckable just then.

Levi bent his head forward so he could lick along the brat’s lower jaw, smirking at the deep moan the caress produced. “We’re in a locked room, not on a rooftop where sound carries.” Another lick and a nibble had Eren shuddering against him; note to self – Eren had one hell of a sensitive neck. His hands slid around to grab the brat’s amazing ass and to give it a squeeze, to encourage Eren to ride up on his thigh a little more. At least Eren wasn’t that much taller than him, unlike some other lovers in the past. “Or where there might be a security camera that could spot us.”

“Ah! I… didn’t consider… that.” Eren’s other hand gently grasped Levi’s hair as if to keep him from moving his head while he continued to gently fondle Levi’s cock through his pants. “I… didn’t spot any….”

It was getting difficult to think right now…. “Bastard Erwin mentioned us up… on the roof.” Levi rested his face against the crook of Eren’s neck for a moment and jerked his hips forward to delight in the feel of friction, of heat from another body against his… and then thought of how embarrassing and messy it would be to come in his pants. “Control freak that he is, probably has his own feed.” He enjoyed the feel of Eren’s hand on him for a few more seconds, tormented the brat with another nibble and then forced himself to take a step back.

Eren’s eyes blazed even brighter as his hands snatched at Levi’s arms and there was a flash of sharp white teeth. “What? Come back here,” he snapped, sounding more than a little petulant.

“Time and place, Rebel. Time and place.” Levi took an almost savage amount of satisfaction in saying those words, which helped placate his raging hormones just then. “Consider it a lesson in-“

“Say one word about my ‘impulse control issues’ and we’ll see how well I hold back on bashing your head in,” the brat muttered, his clawed hands currently buried in his mussed hair as if to prevent them from lashing out at something – or something. He muttered a little more under his breath, the words in an incomprehensible language or languages since the cadence sounded different each time.

Levi allowed him his hissy fit and set about adjusting himself in his pants before he went to collect his and Eren’s blades. By the time he returned with the weapons, Eren seemed to have himself under control.

“Are you really going to make me drink human blood?”

The question surprised Levi; he had expected Eren to either complain some more about their abbreviated make-out session or to question why Levi had changed his mind about it occurring in the first place, but Eren appeared willing to just accept… whatever the hell they were doing at face value, no questions asked. That would make this whole… whatever a lot easier to manage. “Yes. It’s clear you’re a target for the vampires, so we’re going to limit their chances of getting to you as much as possible.”

Eren’s mouth tightened into a grim line, the enticing flush of desire from earlier disappearing from his cheeks and his huge eyes losing their glow. “I’m stronger on Malform blood. Like I said, it’s more potent. Also, they won’t accept me ‘hiding’ for too long. You’ll just drive them to do something to force me out.”

“That’s if we don’t get to them before that point.” Levi debated mentioning the Pixis thing to Eren but held back; he’d trust Erwin just enough to keep his promise on not revealing Eren and Mikasa to the head of the Engineers. If it looked as if Erwin had lied about that, then he’d let the two hybrids know that their secret was out and that they needed to take care of themselves.

“Yeah….” Eren appeared as if he wanted to say something else just then, but merely shook his head as he reached out for his blades. “Yeah, okay.” He fastened them around his waist and tugged his jacket on straight, doing his best to make himself appear presentable. His hair was still a mess and his pants dirty from climbing all over the damn walls, but at least he didn’t look as if he’d been a few minutes away from being fucked *into* said walls. Levi rubbed at the back of his head to try to refocus himself.

“So I guess that means no more night patrols in my near future,” Eren continued as he fell in step beside Levi.

“Wow, there’s hope of there being a few brain cells in that thick head of yours after all.” Levi kept his face expressionless as he poured on the sarcasm, and was rewarded with seeing Eren roll his eyes while grinning at the jab. “I’m sure Erwin can find a use for you.”

“Great, a stroll down memory lane or something.” Eren reached around his neck to adjust a thin strap that hung beneath his shirt, his expression as bitter as his tone. “Fun times.”

Levi couldn’t really blame the brat – Erwin would be ruthless in his quest for information and while he’d apologize if the questions brought up any bad memories, he’d push on regardless. “Be a good boy and maybe there’ll be a reward later.” Eren arched an eyebrow and smiled slightly at the suggestion. Since they’d left the training room, Levi arched an eyebrow as well before he continued. “A little something to… perk you up… and a cup of tea to chase it down.”

Eren’s smile transformed into a grimace. “Meh, hearing ‘little’ lets me know that it’s not going to be nearly as fun as I’m hoping.” He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at nothing in particular ahead of him while Levi struggled not to smirk. “Suppose I should be grateful for the tea.”

“Damn right you should.” Levi had to remind himself that Eren wasn’t really a kid, that he’d lived a long time and handled sexual relationships before – he wouldn’t think of just how many right now. This… *thing* could work out. He’d just be another ‘one night stand’ to the brat and get some sex out of it for himself, and Hange would shut up about him never letting anyone ‘in’. It could work.

As if summoned by his thoughts, Hange came around the corner, her nose stuck in that damn notepad of hers. She nearly walked right into them and let out an excited yelp when she finally noticed them. “Hi! Are you done training for the day?”

“Yeah, what about you, you blind idiot?” Levi glared as he straightened out his blades, which had gotten jostled when he’d scrambled to keep from tripping over Hange’s dumb ass.

“Oh, I finished over an hour ago with Ymir so I could go over some notes.” She blinked a few times while rubbing her left ribs. “She’s… very enthusiastic.”

Eren snorted through his nose and tucked back a lock of hair – why the brat didn’t just cut it short or pin it back, Levi didn’t have a clue. “You’re putting her to work while giving her a chance to beat up people, gee, I wonder why she’s being so ‘enthusiastic’? Maybe you should have Krista sit in on the sessions to make sure she doesn’t play too dirty.”

Hange shrugged, busy tucking away her notebook. “Eh, she’s also teaching us how to fight, so I figure she can be as ‘dirty’ as she wants. It’ll only toughen us up in the long run.”

For once the lunatic seemed to be thinking ahead. “Shouldn’t hurt anything if she slams your head around, that’s for certain.”

“Aw, is someone a bit extra grumpy today?” Hange grinned and motioned at Levi’s face. “Considering – hey, wait, your eye looks a lot better now. Guess that ice helped a lot.” She frowned and took a step closer, as if to examine it better.

Not wanting her to question how it had healed so fast, Levi held up his hands to stave her off. “Were you going somewhere?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Hange’s frown deepened, no doubt from being denied her chance to study something interesting. “I’m supposed to be in Erwin’s office to speak to him and Pixis.”

Levi thought he caught a quick flash of gold from Eren’s direction at the mention of the commander of the Engineers. “Well, we wouldn’t want to keep you if it’s something important.”

“I should still have a few minutes before Pixis arrives.” Hange reached out as if to touch Levi’s face. “Did you ice it after you left my lab last night?”

“Oi! Crazy bitch, mind my personal space,” Levi snapped.

“Uhm, I think I’m going to go find Mikasa.” Eren sounded nervous all of a sudden, which was understandable if Hange was poking her crazy nose into matters related to Eren sharing his blood. “Good afternoon, Captain Hange.” He managed a smile for Levi. “See you later, Captain Napoleon, Sir.”

Levi clicked his tongue. “Cheeky brat.”

“Hey, wait a second.” This time Hange snatched at Eren. “Your collar is all messed up. Let me straighten it for you.”

Eren frowned as he reached up to touch his shirt collar, and then a hint of red colored his cheeks. “Ah! No, it’s fine. Thanks!” He turned around and hurried down the hall, all but running from Hange and Levi.

“Huh, that was odd, wasn’t it? I was just being helpful.” Hange turned in confusion to face Levi, who was purposefully being as expressionless as possible. “Levi?”

“I’ve no fucking clue. Now go bother Erwin, you annoying pest.” Levi headed in the direction in which Eren had just fled, hoping to get away from Hange.

“Levi? You’ve got a button undone, near your collar.”

Dammit, when had the brat touched his shirt? Levi raised his right hand to correct his uniform, and realized too late that he’d fallen into Hange’s trap.

“Ah-ha! ‘Practicing’, were you? I’ll be catching up with you later to hear all about your ‘lesson plan’,” Hange shouted after him, making Levi want to fling his blades down the hall to spear the harping lunatic.

Screwing around with Eren Jaeger better damn well be worth putting up with Hange’s shit, Levi thought to himself.

*******

Erwin smiled at Dot Pixis and held up the carafe of coffee. “Would you like something to drink while we wait for Hange to arrive? She should be here any moment now – unless she’s found a new specimen to study, which in case I’ll have to send out half the Corps to drag her here!”

The lines on Pixis’ weathered face crinkled as he grinned at the ‘joke’. “Ah yes, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting your rather… eccentric captain in the past and can easily imagine her being distracted.” He nodded in the direction of the carafe and settled back in the chair. “I’ve always been of the opinion that great minds should be allowed their quirks.”

“Yes, a few allowances here and there often produces the best results,” Erwin agreed as he poured the older man a cup of coffee. Once done, he handed the mug over and wasn’t surprised when Pixis reached into his dark green jacket to pull out a small flask.

“I agree, one should always be open to a few allowances.” There was a twinkle in Pixis’ golden eyes as he expertly flicked open the lid to the flask and poured what smelled to be a rather potent alcohol into the mug. “Especially when the Chairman keeps the good beans to himself.” He raised his mug in the air as if in a silent toast before taking the sip, his left hand busy tucking the flask back into his jacket.

Erwin raised his mug as well – unfortunately bereft of anything to help doctor the horrid coffee – and had just swallowed when Hange burst into the room. “I’m here! I’m – oh! Sorry, thought I was actually early for once.” She appeared a bit chagrined to find that Pixis had beaten her to the meeting.

Erwin poured another cup of coffee and held it out to her, used to Hange’s antics by now. “You’re not as late as you could have been,” he assured her, relieved that he really hadn’t had to send out a search party like the one time back in Tosca.

Hange blew at the bangs falling onto her face as she accepted the mug then collapsed into the other chair set out in front of the desk, somehow managing not to spill any of the coffee. “Sorry. I thought I was doing so good on time, and then I ran into some people on the way here.” For a moment a huge grin spread across her face and there was an evil gleam in her eyes, which she quickly hid behind the rim of the mug. Erwin had a feeling that someone was in for a world of trouble later and suspected he knew whom it was – but as it wasn’t him and Levi usually had it coming, he really didn’t care.

“Since it seems that the two of you know each other already, we can dispense with the introductions.” There was a point to this meeting, and he wanted to get to it before something happened to derail it, such another attack or Levi deciding that he wouldn’t risk any danger to Eren Jaeger. “Commander Pixis, I must thank you for your time and prompt response to my invitation.”

Pixis continued to smile at him, but there seemed to be a sharp edge to it now, as if he suspected that all pleasantries were about to be over. “You’re welcome, Commander Smith. I’ve always believed that it’s in our best interest if our organizations work together to defeat the Malforms – if only the MP would feel the same.” There was a slight grimace before he took a large swig of his ‘enhanced’ coffee.

“Yes, I feel the same, and it’s even more vital now.” Erwin hesitated for a moment then gestured toward Hange, who quickly drank from her mug before setting it aside so she could pull a datapad from a pocket inside of her jacket. “Recently we’ve come across some very important information which we feel it’s critical that we share.”

“Does this have anything to do with the sewer system?” Pixis leaned forward, an intent look on his face as he glanced back and forth between Hange and Erwin. “We found several Malform nests and two older layers that weren’t on any documented blueprints. Anka is confident that we’ll find the fabled tunnels before the seals open.”

Erwin’s smile thinned as he wondered if a rash of sudden deaths within the Engineers would signal if the organization was growing too close to discovering that secret: he couldn’t imagine that the vampires would allow their escape route being revealed if they planned to capture Eren any time soon.

“No – at least, nothing at this time. However, Hange has been studying the solar radiation levels outside for years and she’s had a bit of a breakthrough.”

“Yes!” She jumped to her feet while she waved the datapad clutched in her hand about, her ponytail bouncing about from the sudden motion. “I mean, it’s always seemed suspicious to me, our tools’ readings when the plants appear to be thriving so well and the mutation rate has dropped off over the years. It’s easier to track with certain plant and animal species – those with shorter life spans such as-“

“Hange.” Erwin spoke loudly and with as much authority as possible, very familiar with how the… enthusiastic scientist could ramble for *hours* over a beloved topic.

She pouted for a second before she recovered a bit of her spark and resumed waving the datapad about. “Ahem. Yes, my research. I’ve finally been able to crunch the data and it’s telling, *very* telling.”

“I’m sure it is, dear. But *what* is it telling?” Pixis appeared amused, but there was a calculating look in his eyes, his chin propped up in his right hand.

Hange handed over her datapad with a flourished bow. “What it tells, distinguished sir, is if I build my very own solar radiation sensor from scratch and then compare the results to one supplied to us, that the results are drastically different.” That was the story they were going with to explain Eren and Mikasa’s data – what Eren and Mikasa had basically done over the years. “Of course the data from our own instrument is supported by supplemental data.”

Pixis’ expression remained unchanged as he flicked through the datapad; Erwin sipped his coffee while Hange practically thrummed in anxiousness, her hands clasped beneath her chin while she waited to see the man’s reaction. It took several minutes for Pixis to read enough to feel satisfied, and when he was finished, he held up the datapad. “Is this the only copy,” he asked Erwin.

“No, we have everything backed up.”

“Then may I keep it?”

It was a show of trust, so Erwin nodded. Pixis tucked the datapad into his jacket, next to his flask. “It looks aboveboard to me, but I’ll have some of my subordinates verify it.” Hange gasped as if mortally wounded, no doubt at the thought of anyone doubting her research. Pixis’ expression remained aloof for a few more seconds and then he smacked his right fist into the arm of his chair. “Damnit! If even a *part* of this is true!” He reached into his jacket for his flask.

Erwin held up his hand while he reached into his desk for his bottle of whisky – his last good bottle of whisky, thanks to Levi raiding his stash the other day. “Then it means we’ve been bleeding out for no good reason, kept herded like sheep inside of the domes for most of the year while our leaders know better.”

Pixis was quick to hold out his empty mug for Erwin to fill with the whisky, yet his attention remained on Erwin. “You really believe it goes that high, this conspiracy?”

“I think they are among those with the most to gain for keeping humanity trapped in the domes, captive to their rule. I know that they are responsible for outfitting the Freedom Corps when we leave the domes to survey the wild to see if it’s habitable and to find new resources, and the Chairmen, Ministers and MP largely control any and all corporations. The Tenebris Corporation has a stranglehold on producing all solar radiation sensors and that hasn’t changed for centuries because our leaders will it. Why is that so?”

Pixis didn’t answer right away; he sipped his whisky while gazing at nothing, his eyes unfocused while he appeared to be deep in thought. After a minute, he rested his mug on the arm of his chair. “The Chairman position is for the most part hereditary, barring the lack of direct heirs. Most Ministry positions are passed along bloodlines as well. There are a few records of democracy, but it’s a foreign concept in this day and age. Once humanity leaves the domes… the balance of power shifts.”

“At the least, there will be new Chairmen arising as new settlements are created, at best new societies will form that will allow people their own voice in their rule.” Erwin set his mug aside so he could clasp his hands together on top of his desk, while Hange came to stand to the side of him. “There hasn’t been a new dome built in over three centuries – our current political structure, if you can even call it that, has been static for hundreds of years. Our ‘esteemed’ leaders are very invested in keeping things in stasis for their own sakes.”

“For their sakes.” Pixis’ mouth twisted in a bitter parody of a smile as he stared into his mug. “Lack of adequate space, lack of sunlight and fresh air, some domes barely having enough food to keep their inhabitants fed – and don’t even get me started on the food! Add to that the fact that we’re sitting targets for the Malforms to pick us off like fish in a barrel. And this is all for *their* sakes?” He quickly tossed back the remaining whisky and held out his mug for more.

So far, Pixis seemed to be accepting of the truth; Erwin hoped that the next part wouldn’t be too much for the man. “It’s… not just them.”

That earned him another sharp, assessing look. “And what does *that* bated statement mean?”

“It means that the Chairmen aren’t smart enough to be manipulating things on their own. Who do you think is old and intelligent enough to pull their strings,” Hange shot back, ever the one to take the plunge without concern for how far she was falling. Erwin forced his expression to remain unaffected and waited to see how Pixis reacted.

The Engineers’ commander stared back at Hange for a few seconds and then drained the contents of his mug in one go. “I wish I could say that I’m too drunk to follow you, I really do.” He leaned forward to set his empty mug on Erwin’s desk and then fell back into the chair, his expression bleak. “Are you truly insinuating what I think you’re insinuating?”

Erwin steepled his fingers together and furrowed his brows, his body tense as he did his best to convey the seriousness of the moment. “If what you believe we’re implying is that vampires are manipulating the domes’ Chairmen, then yes, that is indeed what we are saying right now.”

Pixis muttered something beneath his breath as he wiped at his face with his right hand. When his hand fell into his lap, he looked up at the ceiling. “Couldn’t just call an old man here for some lousy coffee and to talk some trash about the MPs, could you?”

Erwin allowed himself a slight smile. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Pixis echoed his smile and rested his hands on his knees. “No, I suppose that’s true.” Then his demeanor turned serious. “Where’s your proof this time?”

“I’m afraid that we don’t have anything quite so concrete as the solar radiation data just yet.” Erwin reached into his desk to pull out a datapad. “However, I have pulled all of the public records of the Tenebris Corporation. Do you see anything that stands out there?” He keyed on the device and handed it to Pixis.

Taking a moment to scroll through the screen, Pixis began to frown as he flicked back through the pages. “Seriously? How far back does this family go?” He continued to read on.

“Pre-collapse,” Erwin answered for him. “What are the odds that a family line could survive a catastrophic event that wiped out well over half the human population *as well as* their corporation?”

“I’d estimate one in-“

Erwin held up his right hand to silence Hange.

“I get the idea,” Pixis remarked in a droll tone. “It’s damning, I’ll admit. And I suppose that vampires would support domes if the legends of them being vulnerable to sunlight are true. But this isn’t exactly the most definitive proof.” Yet despite his claims, he kept the datapad.

Not ready to reveal Eren and Mikasa’s existence just yet, Erwin nodded. “I agree. How about if I told you that one of my men was killed by a vampire last night?”

That announcement shattered Pixis’ calm façade. “What?” He dropped the device into his lap as he clutched at the arms of the chair. “How are you certain it was a vampire?”

“Ooh! Oooh, let me!” Hange waved her hands about in the air in excitement. “Because despite otherwise appearing human, they had red glowing eyes, sharp fangs and claws! The ability to climb walls, enhanced strength and speed as well as healing ability were also rather telling, but mostly it was the way one of them tore out poor Gunther’s throat with those fangs that tipped us off.” She recited the details while ticking them off on her fingers, as if describing a new plant specimen.

The look that Pixis was giving her just then clearly said that he was moving his opinion of her from ‘eccentric’ into ‘downright insane’, then he shifted his gaze over to Erwin. “You’re serious?”

“Perfectly. I believe that your subordinate, Anka, ran into one of them already.”

“Yes!” Hange bounced on the tips of her toes, her hands gathered behind her back. “When we met to discuss the sewer situation! That’s when we first began to realize that something was… er, well, when we began to suspect. The one blonde MP – she’s a vampire.”

Pixis gave a long, desirous look at the bottle of whisky on Erwin’s desk for several seconds before shaking his head. “You’re telling me that there’s a vampire in the MP.”

“At least one.” Erwin rested back in his chair. “Pixis… I know that we’re asking a lot of you on faith, but nothing we’ve said here is a lie. There’s at least one vampire in the MP, possibly two more. It was those other two who fought my people last night – who indicated that they will continue to fight my people.” At least as long as Eren and Mikasa were part of the Freedom Corps.

“This is….” Pixis burst out of the chair and began to pace around the small area in front of Erwin’s desk. “Do you know what this sounds like?”

“The ravings of a mad man, I’m certain, but *think* about what’s happening in Trost – what happened in Ragako and Utgard, and how quiet Maria and Bern have become,” Erwin insisted. “The attack the other day – have you ever heard of victims turning so quickly? Have you ever seen Malforms being so aggressive yet waiting to attack so sporadically? It’s as if they’re being *controlled*. But what could control them?”

“On average, it takes about twenty minutes for someone gravely wounded or dead to change into a Malform,” Hange added. “In the park, that time was cut down to about five minutes. *Five*.” She held up her hand to illustrate her point, her fingers waggling about for a few seconds. “Think about that infection rate if a more serious attack – or several coordinated attacks take place. No wonder Utgard and Ragako fell.”

“I thought….” Pixis stopped his pacing and tugged at the hem of his green jacket. “I thought it was either a fluke or confusion when Rico reported that Anders had turned so quickly in the sewers. I thought….” He shook his head. “Vampires?”

“From what I’ve been able to deduce, Malforms created by vampires are stronger, more powerful and their… progeny turn faster as a result. The subsequent speed of turning breaks down with each new generation, as does their overall power, but it’s easy to see why there was such an initial collapse of society over a millennia ago.” Hange’s whole demeanor was bleak as she met Pixis’ gaze. “If they set their mind to it, the vampires could easily bring about another collapse.”

His right hand wrapped around his gauntleted left wrist, Pixis turned to face Erwin. “So what do you want from me and the Engineers? I assume you didn’t invite me here just to spoil the delusions of an old man.”

Erwin rose to his feet and walked around the desk to stand in front of the commander. “No, I asked a potential ally here – someone who could help me as I attempt to investigate how far the vampires truly have sunk their claws into the governing body of the domes and then pull the cancer out before it continues to bleed humanity dry.”

Pixis laughed, the sound loud and deep as he reached for his flask. “You don’t do anything by half measures, do you?” He opened the flask and lifted it up in a toast before he tossed back a sip. “Well, why should I leave all the dirty work to you ‘Wingers’? You can count on the Engineers.”

Hange let out a loud cry of joy and lunged across Erwin’s desk for the bottle of whisky, which she then used to fill up everyone’s mugs. Erwin allowed that indulgence, a proud grin on his face as he shared a proper toast with her and Pixis, a rare kernel of hope building inside of him for the future.

*******

Hange hummed to herself while she wiped down the counter of one of the workstations, going through several cleaning wipes until the surface gleamed; that should be enough to satisfy the little germaphobe, so she set up the heating unit to make the tea and even broke out a tin of sweet biscuits she’d been saving. Between the meeting with Pixis going well *and* Levi seeming to get *some* type of action, there deserved to be a bit of a celebration.

Preparations for Levi’s arrival finished, she decided to kill the time before he showed up doing a bit of research – things had been so busy, what with Ymir’s arrival, the revelation of vampires being in the MP and the truth about the solar radiation that Hange hadn’t been able to follow through on something that had been niggling at her the last several days. Hearing Eren bring it up again had made her want to look into the background of Levi’s ‘nickname’; there had to be some importance to it, since Mikasa, Eren and Ymir didn’t hand out nicknames to just everyone. Hange had gotten Armin to admit that he’d been given a nickname as a child, but he’d just sort of laughed and said that Mikasa and Eren had quickly dropped it after a couple of years. She suspected that there was some sort of story behind it and would have to ask either of the two hybrids about it one day.

But for right now, she wanted to know about *Levi’s* nickname, especially after seeing Ymir’s reaction to it. Eren said it in an affectionate manner, at least lately, but Hange would bet her second best UFM microscope that there was a joke hidden in it somewhere.

So much information had been lost after the ‘great’ collapse, when society had been hit hard not only by the solar flares but waves of Malforms attacking humanity. Hange wanted to scream at the thought of all those libraries destroyed, all that digital information wiped out… to hear Ymir, Eren and Mikasa talk about being able to carry a tiny device around with them and access the ‘internet’ wherever they were, to do things like watch movies or read books, to ask for directions or find answers to almost anything…. What little information that had been cobbled back together was restricted, with total access only available at the highest level of society, but Hange was clever and gained favors along the way. It also paid to be good friends with people like Levi, who had few qualms about breaking rules if you helped support his tea habit.

Sitting in front of her computer, she powered it up and logged onto the data network with an alias account. She had to go digging to gain access to some of the history archives: the Chairmen weren’t stupid – they didn’t want people to know about past rights and abilities in case it gave them ideas on what to demand in the present.

Even with a higher level of access than normal, there still wasn’t that much out there on historical figures. Whoever had scavenged through the retrieved data had probably decided that there were more important things to be saved than who did what. Still, Hange kept digging, until she finally came across something to do with the ‘Battle of Waterloo’. From there, she was finally able to cross-reference some more personal information on ‘Napoleon Bonaparte’.

As expected, it wasn’t much. There was the historical facts, the battles, the losses and the exile. She could read about his famous marriage and his suspicious death. So far there wasn’t too much to mock unless it was about his disastrous Russian campaign. Then she came across a commentary about the man himself… and a term she’d never seen before – ‘Napoleon complex’. Hange stared at the screen for several seconds while she read the description and then pushed away from the work station, doubled over in laughter.

*******


	16. Curbstomp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, this is a shorter chapter than normal (lately), but I wanted something that filled you in on the Ymir and Krista background and then it jumps to the present to a major plot point. It gives me a chance to work ahead a bit (next chapter is at least halfway done - considering that work is requiring me to do some travel in a couple of weeks, I'm hoping to get enough done that I won't have to interrupt the posting schedule on Sundays again since we're really heading into the major storyline now). Though I did throw in some 'filler' to make up for the lack of 'pages'.
> 
> As always, appreciate the kudos and any comments you take the time to post!

*******

Ymir ran, her breath catching in her throat, her chest squeezed tight and her body burning. She felt dizzy, as if the world tilted with each step she took yet she forced herself to keep moving, to find shelter before those bastard Nationalists stumbled upon her again. She clenched the knife in her right hand, its handle tacky with drying blood. Learned the hard way, didn’t they? Learned the hard way that not all ‘girls’ were theirs to paw and flip the skirts. She’d be damned if she let them do to her what they did to Alaia and Montse….

Stumbling across the uneven terrain, she almost let out a sob when she noticed the ruins of a barn up ahead. One wall was completely caved in and the roof looked ready to collapse any day now, but it should be good enough to provide shelter through the night; not too far away was the remains of a burned out home, probably owned by a Republican-supporting landowner. Right now she didn’t care whose property she was on, she just wanted somewhere safe and warm to spend the night. The sun would be down in a couple of hours, and as bad as it was to be a woman alone during the day….

She forced herself to slow down as she approached the sagging barn, just in case someone else was using it for shelter. She’d run from several hopeful resting places because she wasn’t about to trade her body – or have it taken by force – just to have a warm place to rest for the night. Body trembling from exhaustion, hunger and fever, she crept up to the seemingly abandoned barn, the knife held clutched before her in case she needed to stab or slash at anyone.

Sunlight streamed upon on the cool autumn day, causing sweat to run down her back and along the side of her face despite the chill of the breeze that blew a strand of hair into her face. Her worn shoes scuffling along the dusty ground around the barn, she stepped over broken pieces of wood and crept through the exposed side of the barn.

There was still the scent of livestock, of cowshit and pigs, moldy straw and hay even though the animals were long gone; either the rebels had taken them or they had fled through the large opening. For a moment Ymir allowed herself to fantasize about the thought of fresh ham, of steaks and eggs and….

At first she thought that the groaning sound she heard was her own, until she stepped further into the barn and noticed the dark brown lump half-buried beneath a pile of rotting hay. Brandishing the knife, she straightened her shoulders to appear as tall as possible, hoping that whoever it was might mistake her for a young man at first. “Who are you!” The fever lent a raspiness to her voice that aided in the deception as much as the stolen pants and the oversized shirt and vest.

The brown lump was still for a moment, and then it lunged toward her with a speed that had her gasping, coming to a halt only before the beam of light that fell near the pile of hay where it was taking shelter. “Impudent bitch! Run away,” it hissed.

She stared in shock at the pale creature huddled just a couple of feet away, red eyes flashing in a gaunt face which made its sharp fangs appear all that much more prominent. It was wrapped in what probably had been a fine coat but was now stained and torn, the white and black clothes beneath it just as fine and now equally soiled. Lank black hair framed that gaunt face, unwashed and matted with sweat and strands of hay.

“Vampiro,” Ymir whispered, recalling the stories that her grandmother had told her to make her stay in bed at night. What else could this thing be, with the fangs and the glowing eyes?

“Ah, a smart bitch.” The creature sniffed once and tried lunging again, only to cringe from the sunlight. “You one of those mewling rebels? Those facists?”

“Hardly.” Feeling faint, Ymir slowly lowered herself onto the ground before she fell. “You one of those Republican pigs?” She didn’t care for either side of this stupid war – both took what they wanted and left destruction in their wake. Men were idiots, were little children who only knew how to break things.

The vampire scoffed and huddled into itself even more. “I don’t care for this backwards country or its meaningless war. You humans’ll just be fighting again in a few more years, over something just as stupid.”

She couldn’t argue with that, except for one thing. “Not my war – we were just traveling through.” Her head hurt and she was so hungry; what was her life when everyone she knew was dead and she was stuck in a barn about to fall down upon her, and arguing with a walking corpse? “Mama said to go to Prague, but Papa wanted to see our cousins instead.” Just like a man, to not listen to a smart woman.

There was a sound of something twisted, of something dark and broken and hurtful – it came from the creature. “And aren’t you so glad you did!” The vampire shifted about so it could bare its teeth at Ymir. “You got to come here to die!”

Fury washed through Ymir, burned through her hotter than the fever. She’d seen her father shot for not swearing loyalty to that Franco bastard, had watched her mother waste away from heartache and shock, had raged by helplessly while soldiers had used her cousins as if they were nothing but worthless dolls. She was starving, was tired and sick and would most likely die at the hands of the next soldier who stumbled upon her, but she would *not* be mocked.

Inching forward to the edge of the sunlight, she narrowed her eyes and held out the knife until the light reflected back onto the creature, causing it to hiss in agony. “I wonder… I bet the Nationals would be *so* happy if I were to tell them about you. About the abomination in the barn, about something they could parade to the nearest church, in front of the people and show how they are *winning* this war as they set you on fire.”

Those red eyes were baleful as they stared at her, that mouth filled with the razor-sharp teeth held open yet no sound came out for several seconds. “Night will come soon.”

“Yes, but not just yet. Besides, you are weak and I have a knife.”

The glare became even more potent as the vampire crouched back into the hay. “What is it that you want, you foul thing?” For all its glowing eyes and sharp teeth, it sounded… petulant.

Ymir grinned and rocked up onto her knees, made almost dizzy again but not from the movement – no, her thoughts were what made her head spin, her mind blurring with what she saw as her one chance. No one listened to a woman, no one cared what they did or felt. They were ignored, they were abused and belittled to the point where she had to hide her sex if she wished to travel alone. But here… here was a being of power. Well, mostly of power. It held more power than she did, if the stories her grandmother had told her were true.

“I want what you have,” she said, the knife held against her chest. “I want to become like you.”

She imagined that it wasn’t often that one shocked a vampire, but this one stared at her in obvious amazement. “You want… you are truly unwell, you crazy bitch.” It shifted about in the hay as it shook its head. “You want to be turned?”

“Yes. There’s no sense in living – I’ll just starve or be killed by the next soldiers I run across, most likely after they try to rape me. So let me become the hunter instead.” She smiled as she spoke, charmed by the idea. Yes, let them run from *her*.

“You truly are insane.” The vampire continued to shake its head. “You’re unwell, in both body and mind. I’m trapped here not just by the sun but because there’s been no adequate food – too many of you are sick, it’s… it’s doing something to me.” Something like concern flashed across its pale features. “I don’t know if I’ve the strength to keep feeding from the likes of you.”

Ymir made a slitting motion across her throat with the knife. “I don’t care – you turn me or I go get the soldiers – it’ll buy me a few more days if I hand you over.”

The creature seemed to try to rise to its feet but only lifted itself a few feet off of the ground. “Impertinent wench! I am a pureblood! I am among the last- the last of my kind!” It suddenly collapsed onto the ground. “Too many… too many of us lost in this last great war. Too much disease. Something is changing. I must tell the others….” It closed its eyes and panted for air.

Ymir didn’t feel any pity for it, not for something that fed off of humans, not something that could be immortal while everything around her died. “You can tell them after you turn me!”

Those red eyes opened and stared up at her. “You might not even turn – there’s a chance you’ll just rot, like everything else around here.”

“It’s a chance I’m willing to take.” She’d rather play an active part in her death and gamble on becoming something stronger, something better and not die at the hands of those bastards. “So, you get something to eat and maybe become stronger, and maybe I become those assholes’ worst nightmare. We both can win.”

There was more of that awful laughter. “Or you poison me with your tainted blood and I get to curse your corpse as I end my life in this foul barn.” The vampire laughed again. “Oh, if Laleh could see me now….” It shook its head back and forth before motioning Ymir forward with one grime-covered, clawed hand. “Come – let us see how Fate decides, if she favors impetuous youth or wisdom.”

“Maybe it’ll be both.” Refusing to feel afraid, to turn heel and run, Ymir inched forward. “If you try to trick me….” She held up the knife.

“It’s difficult to do anything once the feeding has begun, little fool. But perhaps… perhaps you’re what is needed in the times to come. Your cleverness and determination, your tenacity and ferociousness.” It waited until Ymir was within reach and snatched at her with that blinding speed. “We’ll see if you regret this choice, should the bite take.”

She forced herself not to struggle as she was pulled down, onto the foul-smelling hay. Despite the grime covering the vampire, it didn’t have much of a smell itself, just the scent of dirt and a hint of sweat. She flinched when a cold hand pushed aside the collar of her pale blue shirt and let out a cry when something sharp sunk into her neck; the stories were lies, were all wrong about this being pleasant, about the vampire’s victims welcoming the bites. Agony flared up and down her neck, drilling deeper into her throat as those teeth sunk in, as something wet and warm ran along her skin. She tried to struggle, to resist yet she was held too tightly, grew too weak as the pain continued to grow. Staring up at the sun through the broken roof, she grew confused as the sky gradually darkened into night and then there was nothing else.

It hurt to breathe. Ymir took a deep, shuddering breath and doubled over from the pain of it, from the jolt of fire along her nerves as the air went in and out. It continued to hurt for several more breaths, her hands and feet tingling as if she’d been still too long. Realizing that her eyes were closed, she pried them open and noticed that it was now dark outside. Her hands flew up to her throat to press against her skin; a wave of relief flowed through her when she found the flesh to be whole, to not be torn by the vampire’s teeth. Remembering about the creature, she twisted about to look for it.

The vampire lay a few feet away, barely moving at all. Blood was pooled around its head, as if it had sought to dispel what it had taken it. Ymir licked her lips at the sight of the blood, a sharp hunger pang growing inside of her that twisted her stomach and made her fangs descend, made claws sprout from her fingers and the world to fade from colors into gradients of grey.

“You… survived.” There was a hiccup or two from the vampire. “Fate… favoured… you.”

Ymir crawled toward the vampire. “And you?”

The creature let out a slow breath. “Too… much… sickness….”

She didn’t quite understand what the meant, but there was an odor to the creature, a foulness that hadn’t been there before – or that she hadn’t noticed before. Everything seemed stronger now: the scents, the sounds, the sharpness to her vision. Most of all was the strength of her hunger, urging her on to go feed, to find something to sink her new fangs into, to fill her stomach until she thought it would burst if she drank any more….

The vampire did the hiccup-laugh again. “Yes… go now…. Go… my… future….”

She didn’t wait any longer – the scent of death was unappealing, and the barn no longer held any interest for her. Running out into the darkness, she went in search for something to appease her hunger.

*******

Historia scrolled through her datapad, excited to see that there’d been several new lesson plans loaded onto the device. It happened occasionally and never with any predictability, but new coursework would load at some point during the night just when it seemed that she was growing hopelessly bored with the old. Last time it had to do with mathematics and geography, this time it was poetry and botany. She thought she heard a kind, matronly voice in her head chiding her to study well whenever the new material appeared.

Settling at her desk to begin her studies, she ignored the voices outside of her room with an ease learned over the years; no one welcomed her attention, either to see if she could assist them with the chores or to provide them with any company. The few tasks that her grandparents set aside for her to do were finished for the day, so she was back in her room to stay. In a few more hours, Philippe would bring her something to eat for dinner, then a bit more studying before preparing for bed. She lost herself in one of the botany lessons.

Some time later, it sounded as if there was a guest at the door and for a moment Historia set aside her datapad in an attempt to hear the faint voices; her mother had been back about a week now. She’d seen the beautiful woman a couple of times, only fleeting glances, always careful to stay out of her way or risk being shouted at and insulted. It wasn’t that she minded the abuse, not after so many years of it, but that it hurt to see her mother made so upset – especially after this latest trip. For the last few years her mother had been more inclined to ignore her presence, yet something had made her very unhappy lately.

The voices grew louder, the tones harsher, until Historia found herself huddled by her desk, agitated by the anger that thrummed through the household. Should she go see what was happening? Was it her fault? Usually when her mother and grandparents were unhappy it was her fault. What had she done this time?

The sound of someone knocking on her door startled a high-pitched yelp from her, and before she could move, Anika opened the door. The maid hustled into the room, an anxious look on her face. “You are just sitting there? Foolish girl. Get ready, they want to leave.” She motioned for Historia to get up from the desk.

“Leave? What’s happening?” Historia rose up and watched as Anika hurried over to her closet, where she searched through the few items hanging up until she found a darker sweater than what Historia was currently wearing and a long coat.

“I don’t know, something about Malforms attacking in the Rose dome. None of your silliness, child, I’ve more important things to do.” Anika talked down to her as she always did, even though the maid was only a few years older than Historia. None of the staff treated her with respect like they did her mother or grandparents, leaving Historia to believe that something must be wrong with her. She hurried to obey, as always, and removed her thin yellow sweater to pull on the heavier dark brown one. Anika glared at her until she also wore the black outer coat.

“Yes, now you’re ready to go see your grandparents,” Anika chided Historia, all but shoving her out of the room. “Though why they bother with something like you…,” the servant mumbled under her breath.

Historia hunched her shoulders forward as she allowed herself to be pushed out of the room and eventually down the halls and the stairs until she was standing in the receiving room. She was shocked to find both her grandparents and her mother waiting for her, dressed as if ready to go out for the evening. Even more surprising was the fact that they looked at her, actually paid attention to her for once.

“The child is ready? We’ll be leaving as soon as the transport arrives,” her grandfather said, more to Philippe than anyone else in the room. Historia wanted to ask what was going on, to know where they were going but she had learned early on that it was never a good thing to speak up. Her grandfather didn’t like hearing from her, and her mother had that wide-eyed look which meant that she was moments away from lashing out.

Historia’s grandmother, her grey hair neatly pulled back in a bun and her usually prim dress hidden by the dark coat she was wearing, fussed with the high collar of the coat as she sidled closer to her grandfather. “Is it wise, going out this late? Why is… why is *he* sending for us so late?”

“Lod is finally coming to his senses! The attack at Rose has rattled him, so he wants me close!” Her mother paced back and forth through the room. “Finally, I won’t be sent away anymore! He won’t care about that-“

A knock on the door cut through her almost hysterical diatribe, and she ran toward the front door before Philippe or Anika could even take a step toward it. Philippe called out for her to stop, but Historia’s mother was at the door and opening it in a rush, a wide smile on her face as if it was Historia’s fabled father himself behind it. Instead, there were two men dressed in rather plain dark clothes, with hats pulled low over their faces.

“Who are you? Did Lod send you? Are you with the transport?” Historia’s mother frowned at the younger of the two men, a very tall yet slim young man with a scruffy beard that followed the line of his jaw.

“You could say that.” He pushed her farther back into the room and then reached into his long black coat. “But you won’t be going anywhere.” Something bright flashed in his right hand, and then it slashed across the front of Historia’s mother. “Get the girl,” he ordered the other man.

Historia stood there and watched as her mother slowly crumpled to the floor, blood staining the fancy dark blue coat she was wearing and spreading out onto the slightly faded carpet that her grandmother always insisted be cleaned every day. She stood there until her grandmother and Anika began to scream, until that terrible young man strode over to her grandfather and flashed that bright blade again, causing her grandfather to fall just like her mother had done. Then the other man, a bit older and sturdier than the one who was so quick and terrible with the blade, was reaching for her with his large hands and something finally snapped inside.

She waved about her own hands, one of them smacking at hand reaching for her, another snatching up the lamp that had to be dusted with care every day, the heavy piece of leaded crystal and paper that had caused more than a few tears when she failed to clean it properly. She didn’t wait to see how well she threw it, just that it went in about the right direction and that there was a low, fervent curse and that large hand stopped grasping at her as she ran away, ran away from the screams and the awful odor of blood and something much, much worse.

“Adam! Dammit, *get her*!”

Someone was calling after her, was cursing and yelling, but she didn’t stop. All she could see was her mother’s awful, bloodless face as she fell, could see the pool of blood growing…. She sobbed as she dashed out of the house through the servant’s exit, out onto a street she barely recognized and kept running, running away from the only home she’d ever known.

She didn’t know where she was going, didn’t follow any path or trail, just kept to the shadows and off the main road. There were times when she thought she heard footsteps behind her, when she would crouch down and hide, tucked into a tiny ball and hidden in the folds of her coat as much as she could, trembling in fear and shock. Sometimes it felt as if she hid for minutes, sometimes for forever, and when it was quiet she would run again, further away from home, further into the darker, quieter part of the dome. She didn’t care where she went, as long as it was away from people, away from that terrible tall man.

After a while her feet grew sore from the running and it was dark – as dark as the domes ever got. Historia huddled in her coat, exhausted and cold, thirsty and needing to find a place to rest. She rubbed at her eyes, needing to stay awake a little longer and hoping to find a place where it would be all right to sit for a while, and stumbled enough that she almost fell to her knees. Realizing that she wouldn’t be able to go much further at that point, she looked around for someplace to curl up and decided that a nearby doorway would offer her a little protection as it was out of the way. She sunk down to the ground and leaned her back against the jam, her coat tucked around her and her knees pulled up to her chest.

She had just gotten comfortable and had even begun to drift off a little when someone walked by. “Hey! You can’t stay here!”

Jolted awake by the hissed voice, Historia shivered and prepared herself to be hit or kicked as well. “I’m… I’m sorry!” She looked up to see what appeared to be a boy a few years younger than herself standing a few feet away.

“Do you want to get yourself killed? There’s Malforms around here! You need to get out of the open!” He had a large bag hung over his left shoulder and his clothes looked worn but clean.

Historia forced herself onto her feet, wincing a little as her body complained about the sudden movement. “Ah, all right.” She figured that she could wait until the boy left and then try to find someplace else to rest. When he didn’t move on, she shifted her weight back and forth between her feet and glanced around, made nervous by his attention.

The boy looked up at her through his thick, light brown bangs and shook his head. “You don’t have a place to stay, do you?”

“Uhm….” She’d never been very good at lying. Someone had told her that it wasn’t very ladylike, hadn’t they?

“All right, you can stay with me tonight, then.” The boy stuck out his right hand. “I’m Tyler.”

“Thank you. I’m Historia.” She shook his hand and fell in step behind him when he began to hurry along the street. “Is it really bad in this area?” She’d never heard much about the Malforms attacking back where she lived.

“What, the Malforms?” The kid – Tyler – looked at her as if she was insane. “Where are you from? Unless you see the Corps around here, it’s best not to go out at night.”

“Oh.” She wanted to ask him why he was out, but was afraid of offending someone who was actually helping her. “So we’re going somewhere else?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing great, but it’s out of the dark.” He motioned for her to follow him down one of the side streets. “But we have to be quick – it’s already really late. It took me longer to get everything my cousin needs.”

Forcing her sore feet to move faster, Historia hurried along so she didn’t slow Tyler down. They turned along another narrow street, and at first she thought that they must have arrived at their destination when Tyler came to a sudden stop. She was so tired that it took her a moment to realize what it was that the boy was staring at a dozen feet or so down the alley.

At first it looked like a couple of people huddled together, either to talk or to share warmth since they were dressed in flimsy rags. Then she realized that their skin was too pale, that their misshapen heads were barely covered in strands of hair, if at all, and that they were bent over…. Images of her mother’s body flashed back into her mind, of the blood on the carpet, those wide, staring eyes and the gaping wound. The Malforms hissed at each other as they fed, huge bloody mouths descending onto the body of the poor woman lying lifeless on the ground beneath them.

“We have to run,” Tyler whispered to her, his hand clutching at her right arm. “Now!” But as they turned to do just that, another Malform dropped down from the nearest wall, its eyes gleaming red and its mouth huge in its pallid face, filled with such sharp, numerous teeth.

Terror filled Historia, terror and resolve. She shoved Tyler aside as she leapt into the creature’s path. “Get away,” she urged the boy, unwilling to let him be harmed by the Malform when he had tried to help her. “Run!”

Tyler hesitated for a second, but then began to flee as the Malform seemed to focus its attention on Historia. She waved her arms about to ensure that it stayed focused on her, breathing heavily as it crept toward her. Her eyes closed as she imagined those fangs tearing into her, her life ending much like that poor woman just a few feet away.

There was a savage, deep growl that made her flinch, expecting pain from being bitten to follow at any moment, and then there was silence. The pain didn’t follow, and Historia began to hyperventilate as she waited for the agony to begin.

“Relax – take a deep breath before you pass out, Mother Theresa.”

The sound of a voice – a *human* voice – startled Historia enough that she gasped and opened her eyes. She was even more startled to find a person standing in front of her and no Malforms to be found. “What? Where-“ She searched about, but the Malforms were gone, along with Tyler and the body of the poor woman. All that remained was a pool of blood and this stranger, some woman with dark skin and black hair. At least, Historia thought she was a woman; she sounded like one and she had long hair loosely pulled back, but she dressed like a man. Utterly confused at the moment, she wavered back and forth as her sight darkened.

“Wow, don’t go fainting on me like some Disney princess even if you look the part.” The stranger grabbed hold of Historia’s arm and held her steady.

“Who… why do you talk so funny? What’s going on?”

The stranger smiled at her, both hands wrapped around Historia’s upper arm. This close, Historia could see that she had a sprinkling of freckles across her face. “Who says I talk funny? Maybe it’s *you* who talk funny. As for what’s going on, you’re an idiot who decided to sacrifice herself to a bunch of Malform. That’s not something I see every day.”

Tyler. “Is he all right?” Historia managed to find her feet enough that she could reach out to grasp onto one of the arms holding her upright.

The stranger gave her a narrow-eyed look. “You mean the kid? He ran out of here as if his ass was on fire. Didn’t seem too concerned for you.” The look narrowed some more. “Lot of thanks you got there for saving his life, no?”

“I… I didn’t do it for thanks,” Historia admitted.

“Then why did you do it?”

“Why do you care?” Why were they talking about this in an alley that had been full of Malforms just a few minutes ago? Why did this stranger seem to care? Historia felt a rare rush of anger build inside of her as she pushed away the stranger’s hands. “You don’t even know me.”

“Yeah, you’re right about that.” The stranger brushed her hands along her hips, which were clad in a plain black material. She was dressed rather plainly over all, as if to blend in or be overlooked: black pants, dark green jacket with a full hood left pushed back and sturdy black boots. “I just know you look a bit fancy to be in this part of town, giving your life up for some kid who doesn’t seem to care if you die. Makes it seem as if you’re a bit too eager to throw your life away, such as it is.” She sounded a bit mocking toward the end there.

“Such as it is.” Historia found herself laughing as she repeated those words, the sound more than a little hysterical. “My life… my life is such that I have no friends and after tonight I don’t even seem to have a home or any family.” She clutched at her neck as she thought about her mother. “Men came to the house and… and… my mother….” Sobs broke free as she remembered the tall man with the knife.

The stranger remained still for a moment before reaching out to Historia, her hand lifting up her chin. “So you’re going to what, give up your life to a shitty Malform because your family’s dead?” When Historia attempted to jerk her chin away, the stranger kept a firm hold on it, her expression severe. “No, listen to me. What’s the point in dying? What’s the point in giving yourself to others when you can live for yourself, hmm?” She stared intently at Historia. “You’re obviously brave and smart to have gotten free, so don’t throw that away on worthless others. Stand up for yourself.”

No one had ever said that to Historia before. No one ever had… had they? Historia remembered some kind words… but nothing exactly like this. She managed a faint smile as she wrapped her hands around the one holding up her chin. “I can try… but can you help show me how?” This person seemed to be strong.

The stranger’s harsh expression yielded the slightest bit. “Look, you seem like a nice girl-“

“I don’t *want* to be a nice girl,” Historia rushed in. “I want… I want to be able to fight.” She remembered how helpless she’d felt when the men had entered the house and then when she’d seen the Malforms. “I want to not have to keep running. You don’t look like you do much running. Teach me how to fight and to stand up on my own. *Please*.”

Something in what she said prompted the stranger to laugh. “Oh, princess, have you got me pegged wrong.” There was a touch of bitterness in her smile just then. “I do run, you know. I run a lot.” Then she sighed. “But yeah, I can fight as well.” She stared hard at Historia for several seconds, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. “If you’re serious-“

“I am!”

“Dammit, somehow this is Eren’s fault, I know it,” the stranger muttered. “All right, you can stick with me for a while, at least until you know how to fight.”

“Thank you!” Historia rushed forward to give the stranger a quick hug. “Thank you so much!” She rocked back onto her heels and smiled. “I promise – I’ll learn how to fight from you, and we’ll be able to fight together.”

The stranger’s expression softened as she shook her head. “That’s quite a promise there.”

“It’s one I intend to keep.” Historia took a step back and held out her right hand, her face heating from embarrassment. “Oh, where are my manners? Let me introduce myself. I’m Historia Reiss.”

The stranger’s smile slowly melted away as she continued to stare at Historia, and then she began to swear softly under her breath, in some language that Historia had never heard before while she paced back and forth. “Uhm, is something wrong?”

“Reiss? You’ve got to be shitting me!”

“No, I, ah, am not ‘shitting’ you. Is something wrong?” Historia frowned in confusion, and let out a gasp when she saw a flash of red in the stranger’s eyes. “What-“

Moving almost too fast to be seen, the stranger was in front of Historia and grabbed her by the arms again to give her a shake. “You really don’t know what it means to be a Reiss, do you?”

“It’s a last name! My last name! What happened to your eyes?” Historia stared up at the stranger, but her eyes were a normal shade of brown now. Had she imagined that just now?

“Eh, don’t worry about it, they do that now and then.” The stranger let go of her and spoke in that odd language again. “All right, we’re getting out of here *right now*.” She grabbed hold of Historia’s left hand and began pulling her out of the alley. “O’Malley owes me a favor – he can set up a new ID for you that’ll hold for at least a few months. We’ll swing by his place tonight and then tomorrow we’re getting our asses out of this dome. Ragako might not be too bad, that or Karanese. We’ll see which of the tunnels don’t look too bad and figure it out then.” She sounded as if she were speaking out loud more than she was talking to Historia.

Historia’s head was spinning at all of this crazy talk. New ID? Leave the dome. “How can we leave the dome? Why would we want to?”

The stranger flashed her a grin that seemed to contain too many teeth. “Don’t look down now, Alice, but you’ve just jumped into the rabbit hole. We’re all mad here.”

Historia could only stare back in complete confusion for about a minute, until she nearly tripped on her own feet. “Are you even speaking English?”

“Yep – can speak it in about fifteen dialects, if you like. Oh, and figure out a new name. O’Malley will need something to put down in the ID when we get there.”

“But you haven’t even told me *your* name,” Historia wailed. Maybe that Malform really had attacked her and this was all one big delusion created by her mind right before she died.

There was another flash of too many white teeth. “Me? I’m Ymir.”

*******

Ymir held onto Krista’s hand as they walked along the street, smiling as Krista glanced this way and that at the various shops. “There’s so much to buy here!”

“Yeah, Trost is one of the better domes.” Ymir’s smile slipped as she reflected back the leaner years, of the times when her skin had crawled at the thought of wearing filthy clothes yet another day, when she’d think nothing of stripping a corpse for an outfit less foul than the rags barely covering her.… “Trost isn’t too bad, compared some other places.” Some other places and times.

Krista gave her left hand a squeeze as if she’d guessed at the memories cluttering her head; her lover was very good at gauging her mood, at figuring out when the dark times came back to haunt her. “How much do you want to bet you’ll be complaining about it in another fifty years, hmm?” Krista tilted her head to the side and grinned, her expression so lovely and bright just then that Ymir had to smile as well.

“You really do know me, don’t ya?”

“Hmm, maybe a little.” Krista stifled a giggle with her free hand, her blue eyes downcast in a fetching, pseudo-shy manner that made Ymir pull her close for a quick kiss. There were times when Ymir felt filthy – more than the sensation of dirt that couldn’t ever be washed away but sins worn deep into the soul, of blood soaked into the skin to the point where she couldn’t understand why people didn’t flinch away from the sight of her – yet Krista always made her feel better than what she was, made her feel as if she was holding redemption in her hands. Krista made her *want* to be better than she really was, made her feel *human* again. Now all she had to do was get that stubborn bastard Eren to agree to turn Krista and everything would be fine – she knew that he was slowly being worn down, that he was starting to see Krista in a new light. He was starting to see Krista as her own person, worthy of living more than the paltry few decades that most people got if they didn’t end up as Malform fodder.

She wondered if that one foul-tempered captain sniffing around him would help her case or not – it was exceedingly rare that Eren did anything more than ‘fuck ‘em and leave ‘em’, but he certainly seemed enamored of the midget. Perhaps having someone to care about other than that bitchy sister of his would make Eren understand why Ymir was so desperate to have Krista turned.

“Hmm, this shop looks good.” Krista tugged on Ymir’s hand and led her across the street toward a small boutique that had several dressed displayed in the windows. They were made with a pretty floral material, the colors pastels that would go well with Krista’s blonde hair and pale skin, and the empire waistline would flatter her figure. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know, I prefer something a bit more plunging to show off my ample cleavage.” Ymir let go of her lover’s hand so she could strike a classic ‘cheesecake’ pose, pushing out her mostly flat chest and curving her rear as well. Krista stared at her in bemusement for a few seconds before laughing, while the passerby’s gave them a wide berth.

“Oh! Yes, and in red satin! Definitely red satin for you!” Krista clapped her hands in appreciation.

“Call me Mae West,” Ymir drawled as she swished her hips about. “When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better.”

Krista giggled some more. “It must have been so fun back then.”

“It… was interesting.” Much of Ymir’s early memories were jumbled from the time she was turned, but the odd snippets still came through. “Like everything else, there was good and bad.” She rubbed at her neck as flashes of sinking her teeth into the necks of her victims came back in a rush.

“You always say that.” Krista smiled as she turned back to the shop’s windows. “Now, what about the dresses?”

“I think you’ll look great in them.”

“Then I’ll go try them on and see which one I like best.”

By now, Krista certainly knew Ymir well enough that she didn’t try to drag her into the shop, where Ymir would be bored and most likely take that boredom out on some poor assistant who was trying to make a living dealing with customers. She lifted up on her toes to kiss Krista on the cheek before going inside, and Ymir was content standing outside as the flow of humanity moved around her while enjoying the anticipation of wondering which dress Krista would end up buying.

It was almost funny how little things had changed in the last few hundred years – the domes were basically designed on the same pattern with the same materials, so varied mostly in upkeep and a few details. Ones like Tartarus and Mosca had fallen on hard times, producing little goods to trade and so barely maintained themselves, while domes such as Trost and Karanese were among the upper-crust. Yet even then they were bland, the people were little more than drones, the air was stale and Ymir was bored, bored, *bored*. She was with Eren in that life was much better out in the ‘wild’, even if it lacked pretty dresses for one’s girlfriend and there was that annoying sunlight.

She picked at her nails with one slightly distended claw and took to internally mocking the people who walked by while waiting for Krista to settle on a favorite dress; that one couple looked so incredibly boring that they probably were kinky as hell once they got back home – that or they were too clueless to figure out where the guy was supposed to stick his friggen dick. Ah, for the good old days of the internet… The guy scurrying in front of her was so afraid of his shadow that she wanted to sneak up behind him and breathe down his neck. The old woman busy arranging fancy pillows in the window across the street appeared to be someone whom-

Ymir took a deep breath and felt her spine stiffen as the familiar whiff of vampire drifted past, too strong for her comfort. Dammit, she’d allowed herself to get distracted, to-

“Ah, we don’t want to cause a scene, do we?” Annie grabbed onto Ymir’s right hand and forced it down, pushing the claws out of sight while keeping her trapped in place. Somehow she’d sidled right up to Ymir, dressed in her MP uniform and with that mocking half-smile on her face. Just a few feet away stood another MP, her back to them and her head bent as if she was distracted by something.

“Why should I care about that?” Ymir hissed, her fangs out and her bangs falling into her eyes. She wanted to tear out this short bitch’s throat, to-

“Because Bertolt’s in there with your girlfriend, and who would think twice about an MP taking down a freak like you?” Annie’s voice remained perfectly even, her eyes unchanged, yet she flashed a hint of sharp fang at Ymir.

“Krista?” Ymir attempted to yank her arm free but Annie had always been strong as hell. “If you harm her, I will string your guts up like Christmas lights!”

“Yes, that threat’s always been impressive.” Annie let out a burst of air and shook her head. “Just keep quiet and she’ll be safe. I want to talk, not fight.”

“Yeah, right.” Yet Annie remained still, her claws sheathed and her eyes blue, when any other time Ymir had run across another vampire she was usually fighting for her life right about now. Part of her screamed that this was a trap, that she should lash out at the bitch, should tear off her head and then get Krista… but Krista… “What do you want?”

“See, was that so difficult?” Annie smiled that mocking half-smile a moment longer before her expression smoothed out and became harder to read. “I want to talk to you, so stay there and nothing will happen to your girlfriend. I promise.” She gave Ymir’s wrist a painful squeeze before she released it and took a step back.

It was a struggle not to run the moment she was released, but Ymir couldn’t take the chance that Annie wasn’t lying about Bertolt being in the store with Krista; he was the ‘gentlest’ of the trio… but that wasn’t saying much. “All right, I’m listening.” She leaned back against the concrete wall of the store, her arms folded over her chest. Of all the shitty luck, why hadn’t she worn her uniform out today, why hadn’t she at least brought a knife or two in the sleeves of her jacket? She was getting too lazy, relying on her claws and fangs.

Annie smoothed down the front of her MP jacket and positioned herself better to appear as if just someone chatting with a friend while doing her best to block Ymir from running into the store after Krista. “I must say, you’ve really done well for yourself these last few years. Love the girlfriend – you really went high class there,” she said, switching into an English dialect that for the most part hadn’t been spoken for centuries.

Annie’s face might have remained impassive, but Ymir knew when she – well, really Krista – was being insulted. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that! Leave her out of this!”

“No, not when you were foolish enough to bring her into your fucked up life.” Annie’s eyes flashed red for a moment. “Do you really think you can keep her safe? They’re so fragile, you know. You might get her to live a little longer, but all it takes is one bite, one slash and she’s dust like the rest of them.”

“I won’t let that happen!” Ymir’s hands clenched into fists, her claws tearing into the flesh of her palms as she fought not to punch that bland face in front of her. “I’ll-“

“Is that why you’re helping Eren?” Annie stepped forward and pressed her right hand against Ymir’s chest. “Is that why you’re hiding with those weak Wingers? Because of Eren?” She cocked her head to the side and stared hard at Ymir. “You want him to turn her for you. He’s the only one who can do it.”

Ymir stared at Annie in shock, and realized too late that doing so was a mistake. “What the hell are you talking about? I’m just trying to get away from your crazy ass.”

“No, you truly do love the girl.” Annie smiled, her face transformed by the expression – not with joy, but malevolence. “We weren’t sure at first, but you *do*. And that means you’ll do anything to keep her safe, won’t you?”

Shaking her head back and forth, Ymir tried to deny the exposed weakness. “No, that’s not it.”

“So Bertolt can leave with the girl and kill her, yes?”

“No!” Ymir shouted out the word before she could even think, her hand lashing out to grab hold of Annie’s throat. Of course the bitch blocked it before she could get a decent hold.

Annie’s smile grew even more evil. “Oh yes, I think you will.” She twisted Ymir’s hand backwards until Ymir winced in pain and then let it go before anyone noticed. “I think you will because we basically want the same thing. We want Eren to do what he was created for, after all.”

Holding her sore hand to her chest, Ymir shook her head once again. “I don’t… you’re insane if you think he’ll do what you want.”

“Hmm, I don’t think so.” Annie glanced down to brush off something from the hilt of her right blade, her brows furrowed and her lips twisted with bitterness. “He’s a bit confused right now, but he’ll see things correctly soon enough.” She looked back up at Ymir, her expression smoothing out to its normal indifference. “And you’re going to help us with that.”

Having a bad idea of where this was going, Ymir laughed, the sound bitter and weak. “And if I decline your offer?”

Annie bared a mouthful of sharp, overlong teeth. “Then something bad is going to happen to your pretty mortal girlfriend.”

Yeah, she had a feeling it would come to that. Ymir closed her eyes for a moment and thought back to the night when she’d met Krista, to the promise she’d made her. All those years of being alone, all those fucked up years, and she’d found her sunshine. She… dammit, she couldn’t lose it now, no matter what the price. “So what do you want me to do,” she asked, sounding defeated even to herself.

This time, Annie’s smile was one of pure joy – yeah, the cunt sure did love breaking things, didn’t she? “You’re going to help us get Eren. We don’t feel like waiting forever for him to come to us and the fights never go the way we want, so when the time is right, we’ll go to him. He’ll never expect something like that.”

Ymir thought about Eren, the way he’d helped her out over the years even if he’d be a snarky bastard about it the entire time. She thought about how Mikasa would hunt her down for this as long as the woman was alive… and how she’d deserve it for the betrayal. “One thing – Eren has to change Krista first.” She glared at Annie and bared her own set of fangs for a second, mindful of the people walking past. “There’s no sense in me handing him over if I’ll only lose her to old age or a Malform eventually.”

Annie shrugged as if unbothered by the condition. “You won’t have forever to convince him, but we’ll give you a little time.” When Ymir was set to complain about it, Annie held up her gloved right hand. “Once we have him, he’ll be turning people for us. You can bring the girl to us to have him turn her then if it’s not done beforehand.”

As if Krista would easily forgive her for this; Ymir was hoping to have Krista already turned and then betray Eren with no one the wiser. But if she failed that… well, Krista would be as close to immortal as possible. That was all that mattered. “All right.”

“Just in case you think that you can hide the girl and betray us, keep in mind that we still hold Maria and Bern in our grasp, along with other domes.” Annie reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out a small device, reminiscent of the cell phones pre-collapse. “Wouldn’t it be a shame if Maria were to be torn apart like Utgard? Isn’t your little princess from Maria?” Her grin just then was more an evil smirk as she handed Ymir the communications device.

“… yeah.” They hadn’t been back to Maria since that night, just in case someone recognized Krista – recognized *Historia* - but Krista still considered it home. Her mother and grandparents were dead, but what about the families of the people who had helped raise her, who had maintained the house where she had lived? No, Krista would be heartbroken if Maria dome fell. “Tell me, were you born this much of a bitch or did it just build up over time?”

Annie’s blue eyes flashed red again as she motioned to the device. “Keep that close – we’ll use that to arrange things when the time is right to claim Eren. Any sign that those Wingers or Mikasa is on to our plan, and there’s one less dome and one less Reiss.” The threat issued, Annie spun around and went after the other MP.

Ymir watched her approach the brunette MP, who appeared to have been watching something on her datapad the entire time. Wow, nice to see her taxes – if she paid any – put to such good use. Annie and the other MP took off down the street, leaving Ymir to slump against the wall feeling drained from a sense of impotent rage. Dammit, what was she going to do? What *could* she do? She didn’t doubt that Annie and the other vampires would destroy Maria if she told Commander Smith about the attempt to kidnap Eren – all that was at stake were human lives, and they were worthless to vampires. The Malform must be desperate to feed by now, so why not unleash them?

Then there was Krista…. She couldn’t let anything happen to the girl, not when she was so close to getting what would keep Krista safe. Ymir wiped at her face with her right hand while she tucked the device into her left back pocket. Somehow, she’d make this work, she’d figure out a way to hand over Eren without hurting anyone else; it was like Annie had said, Eren had been created to turn other people into hybrids like him. Why else was he the only one who could do it? Why else could he and Mikasa survive in sunlight? It was only a matter of time before the vampires got their hands on him anyway, so might as well make sure it happened in as bloodless a manner as possible.…

She was startled from her thoughts when Krista emerged from the store with a bag swinging from her left hand. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t think I’d take that long!” Krista rushed over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “But there was this really sweet guy in there who was helping me pick out the dress, and we got to talking and everything.”

Really sweet guy, huh? Ymir forced herself to grin down at her girlfriend and not choke at the scent of vampire that wafted off of Krista. “That’s nice – I know I suck at helping you out at that stuff.”

Krista laughed and held up the bag to chest level. “You always say that you like the first thing I try on so we can leave quickly. It’s okay – I think you’re going to like this one.”

“I can’t wait to see you wear it later when we go out to dinner.” Ymir reached for and latched onto Krista’s free hand and tugged her away from the dress shop, wanting to put as much distance between them and Annie and Bertolt as possible.

“Ymir? Is everything all right?”

“It’s fine, darling,” Ymir assured her lover. It would be, soon enough. Somehow she’d convince Eren to get over whatever stupid reservations he had about turning people and Krista would be fine, would be almost invincible – hell, she’d be one up on that Annie bitch in that she could survive sunlight. Then… Ymir would figure things out from there, because then they would have the *time*. That was the important thing, the two of them having the time and the ability to just vanish anywhere in the whole damn world. Ymir didn’t care about the humans, she didn’t care about the vampires, and while it would hurt to betray the few friends she had left, all she really lived for was Krista.

*******

All right, since this is a shorter chapter *ha!* than usual, I figured that I’d fill you in on the chapter titles. Yes, they’re taken from songs. Here are the pertinent lyrics from each:

Chapter one:  
Artifice by Sohn  
Key lyrics:  
Is it over?  
Did it end while I was gone?  
'Cause my shoulders  
Couldn't hold that weight for long  
And it all just feels the same  
Somebody better let me know my name  
Before I give myself away  
Somebody better show me how I feel  
'Cause I know I'm not at the wheel

Chapter two:  
Demons by Jessie Hernandez & the Deltas:  
You dig up another, hole into the wall whoa  
watching as the people pass  
watching not to hear your way of thinking  
shuffle your feet now, dragging them across the land  
heavy like the dreams you had, planted yet moving in slow  
Scratching your head now, wondering if you're still sane  
is this just a game you play  
when you got to keep you mind from slipping  
spread out your arms long, taking everything you can  
store it like a hoarding man, cause you can't let things go

Chapter three:  
Under Pressure: David Bowie/Queen (yeah, some foreshadowing here)  
Pressure pushing down on me  
Pressing down on you, no man ask for  
Under pressure that burns a building down  
Splits a family in two  
Puts people on streets  
It's the terror of knowing  
What this world is about  
Watching some good friends  
Screaming, "Let me out!"  
Tomorrow gets me higher  
Pressure on people - people on streets  
Chippin' around, kick my brains 'round the floor  
These are the days - it never rains but it pours  
People on streets - people on streets  
It's the terror of knowing  
What this world is about  
Watching some good friends  
Screaming, "Let me out!"  
Tomorrow gets me higher, higher, higher...  
Pressure on people - people on streets  
Turned away from it all like a blind man  
Sat on a fence but it don't work  
Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn  
Why, why, why?  
Love  
Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking  
Can't we give ourselves one more chance?  
Why can't we give love that one more chance?  
Why can't we give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?..  
'Cause love's such an old-fashioned word  
And love dares you to care for  
The people on the edge of the night  
And love dares you to change our way of  
Caring about ourselves  
This is our last dance  
This is our last dance  
This is ourselves  
Under pressure  
Under pressure  
Pressure

Chapter four:  
We will not grow old by Lenka:  
You and me will be lying side by side  
Forever, forever  
Underneath this adolescent sky  
Together, together  
And you will hold my heart  
Inside your hand  
And you'll be the one  
The one to tell me  
Oh, we've got a long, long way to go  
To get there, we'll get there  
But oh, if there's one thing that we know  
It's that we will not grow old  
I made you swear that our hearts will never die  
No never, no never  
'Cause no one seems to believe that we can fly  
Forget them, forget them, oh you told me  
Oh, we've got a long, long way to go  
To get there, we'll get there  
But oh, if there's one thing that we know  
It's that we will not grow old  
Oh, we've got a long, long way to go  
To get there, yeah we'll get there  
But oh, if there's one thing that we know  
It's that we will not grow old  
Oh, how could we know that day?  
It came with age  
That oh, the feeling would fade  
Oh, we've got a long, long way to go  
To get there, we'll get there  
But oh, if there's one thing that we know  
It's that we will not grow old  
Oh, we've got a long, long way to go  
To get there, yeah we'll get there  
But oh, if there's one thing that we know  
It's that we will not grow old  
We will not grow old  
We won't grow old  
No, no, we will not grow old  
Oh no, we will not grow old  
We will not grow old

Chapter five  
Changes by David Bowie:  
I still don't know what I was waiting for  
And my time was running wild  
A million dead-end streets  
and every time I thought I'd got it made  
It seemed the taste was not so sweet  
So I turned myself to face me  
But I've never caught a glimpse  
Of how the others must see the faker  
I'm much too fast to take that test  
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes  
(Turn and face the strain)  
Ch-ch-Changes  
Don't want to be a richer man  
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes  
(Turn and face the strain)  
Ch-ch-Changes  
Just gonna have to be a different man  
Time may change me  
But I can't trace time  
I watch the ripples change their size  
But never leave the stream  
Of warm impermanence and  
So the days float through my eyes  
But still the days seem the same  
And these children that you spit on  
As they try to change their worlds  
Are immune to your consultations  
They're quite aware of what they're going through  
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes  
(Turn and face the strain)  
Ch-ch-Changes  
Don't tell them to grow up and out of it  
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes  
(Turn and face the strain)  
Ch-ch-Changes  
Where's your shame  
You've left us up to our necks in it  
Time may change me  
But you can't trace time  
Strange fascination, fascinating me  
Changes are taking the pace  
I'm going through  
I said that time may change me  
But I can't trace time  
  
Chapter six  
Ghost of you by My Chemical Romance:  
At the end of the world  
Or the last thing I see  
You are  
Never coming home  
Never coming home  
Could I? Should I?  
And all the things that you never ever told me  
And all the smiles that are never ever...  
Ever...  
Get the feeling that you're never  
All alone and I remember now  
At the top of my lungs in my arms she dies  
She dies  
At the end of the world  
Or the last thing I see  
You are  
Never coming home  
Never coming home  
Could I? Should I?  
And all the things that you never ever told me  
And all the smiles that are ever gonna haunt me  
Never coming home   
Never coming home  
Could I? Should I?  
And all the wounds that are ever gonna scar me  
For all the ghosts that are never gonna catch me  
If I fall  
If I fall (down)  
At the end of the world  
Or the last thing I see  
You are  
Never coming home  
Never coming home  
Never coming home  
Never coming home  
And all the things that you never ever told me  
And all the smiles that are ever gonna haunt me  
Never coming home  
Never coming home  
Could I? Should I?  
And all the wounds that are ever gonna scar me  
For all the ghosts that are never gonna... 

Chapter seven  
Beginning to see the light by the Velvet Underground  
Well, I’m beginning to see the light  
Well, I’m beginning to see the light  
Some people work very hard  
But still they never get it right  
Well, I’m beginning to see the light  
Wanna tell all you people now, now, now  
Baby, I’m beginning to see the light  
Hey, now, baby, I’m beginning to see the light  
Here we go again, playing the fool again  
Here we go again, acting hard again, alright  
Well, I’m beginning to see the light, I wanna tell you  
Hey now, baby, I’m beginning to see the light  
It's kinda softer now  
I wore my teeth in my hands  
So I could mess the hair of the night  
Hey, well, I’m beginning to see the light  
Now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now  
Baby, I’m beginning to see the light, now  
It's kinda softer, hey, now, baby  
I'm beginning to see the light  
I met myself in a dream  
And I just wanna tell you, everything was alright  
Hey now, baby, I’m beginning to see the light  
Here comes two of you  
Which one will you chose?  
One is black and one is blue  
Don’t know just what to do, alright  
Well, I’m beginning to see the light  
Some people work very hard  
But still they never get it right  
Well, ‘Im beginning to see the light  
Oh, it's getting little softer in here now  
Now, now, baby I'm beginning to see the light  
Oh, it's coming 'round again  
Hey now, now, now, baby, Im beginning to see the light  
One more time  
There are problems in these times  
But, ooh, none of them are mine  
Oh, baby, I’m beginning to see the light  
Here we go again  
I thought that you were my friend  
Here we go again  
I thought that you were my friend  
How does it feel to be loved?  
How does it feel to be loved?  
How does it feel to be loved?  
How does it feel to be loved?  
How does it feel to be loved?  
How does it feel to be loved?

Chapter eight  
Dark Side by Kelly Clarkson (again, a bit of foreshadowing)  
Oh oh oh, there's a place that I know  
It's not pretty there and few have ever gone  
If I show it to you now  
Will it make you run away?  
Or will you stay  
Even if it hurts  
Even if I try to push you out  
Will you return?  
And remind me who I really am  
Please remind me who I really am  
Everybody's got a dark side  
Do you love me?  
Can you love mine?  
Nobody's a picture perfect  
But we're worth it  
You know that we're worth it  
Will you love me?  
Even with my dark side?  
Like a diamond  
From black dust  
It's hard to know  
What can become  
If you give up  
So don't give up on me  
Please remind me who I really am  
Everybody's got a dark side  
Do you love me?  
Can you love mine?  
Nobody's a picture perfect  
But we're worth it  
You know that we're worth it  
Will you love me?  
Even with my dark side?  
Don't run away  
Don't run away  
Just tell me that you will stay  
Promise me you will stay  
Don't run away  
Don't run away  
Just promise me you will stay  
Promise me you will stay  
Will you love me? ohh  
Everybody's got a dark side  
Do you love me?  
Can you love mine?  
Nobody's a picture perfect  
But we're worth it  
You know that we're worth it  
Will you love me?  
Even with my dark side?  
Don't run away  
Don't run away  
Don't run away  
Promise you'll stay

Chapter nine  
Night Glo by Foxes:  
Hear the noise, tonight.  
You burned out your light.  
Breathe you in, hold you down.  
You don't have to tread the line.   
Stop the noise, world's getting louder.   
Try to hide, like a child.  
Hard to see, too hard to find.  
You don't have to tread the line,  
you don't have to tread the line.  
And does it hurt you?  
Do you feel when I try to touch?  
Are you scared now?  
If I open up maybe you will.  
When soldiers are calling,  
just run through the night glo.  
Drown out the voices,  
and you know you don't have to go (have to go).  
Then you know you don't have to go.  
Kill the noise, tonight.  
You burned out your light.   
All the kings and all the men,   
can't put you together again.  
Can't put you together again.  
And does it hurt you?  
Do you feel when I try to touch?  
Are you scared now?  
If I open up maybe you will.  
When soldiers are calling,  
just run through the night glo.  
Drown out the voices,  
and you know you don't have to go.  
And does it hurt you?  
Do you feel when I try to touch?  
Are you scared now?  
If I open up maybe you will.  
Soldiers are calling,   
just run through the night glo.  
Drown out the voices,  
and you know you don't have to go.   
When soldiers are calling,  
just run through the night glo.  
Drown out the voices,  
and you know you don't have to go.

Chapter ten  
Young Blood by Birdy:  
We're only young and naive still  
We require certain skills  
The mood it changes like the wind  
Hard to control when it begins  
The bittersweet between my teeth  
Trying to find the in-betweens  
Fall back in love eventually  
Yeah yeah yeah yeah  
Can't help myself but count the flaws  
Claw my way out through these walls  
One temporary escape  
Feel it start to permeate  
We lie beneath the stars at night  
Our hands gripping each other tight  
You keep my secrets hope to die  
Promises, swear them to the sky  
The bittersweet between my teeth  
Trying to find the in-betweens  
Fall back in love eventually  
Yeah yeah yeah yeah  
As it withers  
Brittle it shakes  
Can you whisper  
As it crumbles and breaks  
As you shiver  
Count up all your mistakes  
Pair of forgivers  
Let go before it's too late  
Can you whisper  
Can you whisper  
The bittersweet between my teeth  
Trying to find the in-betweens  
Fall back in love eventuallyYeah yeah yeah yeah  
The bittersweet between my teeth  
Trying to find the in-betweens  
Fall back in love eventually  
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

Chapter eleven  
Freak Like Me by Halestorm (obviously from the ‘trio’ point of view):  
I’m on the train that’s pullin the sick and twisted,  
Makin the most of the ride before we get arrested,  
We’re all wasted,  
And we’re not going home tonight.  
Covered in black we lack the social graces,  
Just like an animal we crawl out of our cages,  
They can’t tame us,  
So if you’re one of us, get on the bus  
If you’re a freak like me,  
Wave your flag!  
If you’re a freak like me,  
Get off your ass!  
It’s our time now,  
To let it all hang out  
So shout if you’re a freak like me,  
You were born to burn,  
This is no disease you don’t need a cure!  
It’s our time now to come out!  
If you’re a freak like me!  
If you’re a freak like me!  
We’re underground but we will not surrender,  
We’re gonna give them something to remember, yeah,  
So write your name in gasoline,  
And set that shit on fire  
If you’re a freak like me,  
Wave your flag!  
If you’re a freak like me,  
Get off your ass!  
It’s our time now,  
To let it all hang out  
So shout if you’re a freak like me,  
Don’t apologize,  
They can’t hold you down,  
You were born to rise!  
It’s our time now to come out!  
If you’re a freak like me  
If you’re a freak like me  
Are you a freak like me?  
Are you a freak, like, me?!  
If you’re a freak like me,  
Wave your flag!  
If you’re a freak like me,  
Get off your ass!  
It’s our time now,  
To let it all hang out  
So shout if you’re a freak like me,  
Don’t apologize,  
They can’t hold you down,  
You were born to rise!  
It’s our time now to come out!  
If you’re a freak like me!  
If you’re a freak like me!  
If you’re a freak like me!  
If you’re a freak like me!  
If you’re a freak like me!

Chapter twelve  
C’mon by Panic at the Disco! w/ Fun:  
It’s getting late, and I  
Cannot seem to find my way home tonight  
Feels like I am falling down a rabbit hole  
Falling for forever, wonderfully wandering alone  
What would my head be like  
If not for my shoulders  
Or without your smile  
May it follow you forever  
May it never leave you  
To sleep in the stone,  
May we stay lost on our way home  
C’mon, c’mon, with everything falling down around me  
I’d like to believe in all the possibilities  
Try not to mistake what you have with what you hate  
Celebrate the night  
It’s the fall before the climb  
If I fall forward, you fall flat  
And if the sun should lift me up  
Would you come back? C'mon!  
C’mon, c’mon, with everything falling down around me  
I’d like to believe in all the possibilities  
C’mon, c’mon, with everything falling down around me  
I’d like to believe in all the possibilities  
So c’mon, c’mon, with everything falling down around me  
I’d like to believe in all the possibilities  
It’s getting late and I, cannot seem to find my way home tonight.

Chapter thirteen  
Jackie-O by Mono Town:  
It took a while to find you  
my heart was black and dry  
accept the things you can’t change  
never let them see you cry  
things go by you feel the same  
you’re not too happy, you’re not sad  
you have my body, you have my name  
on every picture you look so glad  
you can live for a thousand years  
alone and dark and cold  
or face the enemy and all your fears with a heart of gold  
you can live for a thousand years  
alone and dark and cold  
or face the enemy and all your fears with a heart of gold  
call me quiet or call me hell  
as a drift of pure white snow  
it’s a beginning and an end  
of the world we used to know  
you can live for a thousand years  
alone and dark and cold  
or face the enemy and all your fears with a heart of gold  
you can live for a thousand years  
alone and dark and cold  
or face the enemy and all your fears with a heart of gold  
la la la la la la la la la la la la….

Chapter fourteen  
Unravel by TK from Ling Tosite Sigure (English translation):  
Please tell me… tell me how this place is supposed to work; just who lies within me?  
I’m broken, broken in the midst of this world. But you’re smiling, blind to it all.  
I’m broken anyway, so I halt my breath;  
I can’t unravel myself, and even the truth’s in a freeze.  
I’m breakable, unbreakable; going insane, unable to lose my mind:  
Then I found you and felt something give way!  
In this twisted world, my form grows more and more transparent, till it can’t even be seen.  
Please don’t find me… don’t look upon me.  
In this world that someone else imagined, I simply don’t want to hurt you.  
So please just remember me, as vivid as I used to be.  
Endlessly expanding solitude wraps around me, and I’m reminded of times I laughed innocently,  
But I can’t move, can’t get loose, can’t move, can’t get loose, can’t move, can’t move!  
unravelling the world  
Something changed in me… I couldn’t change myself…  
The two mix together, both of us facing destruction.  
I’m breakable, unbreakable; going insane, unable to lose my mind;  
But I won’t let you be defiled!  
In this twisted world, my form grows more and more transparent, till it can’t even be seen.  
Please don’t find me… don’t look upon me.  
In this lonely trap that someone planned, before the future becomes unraveled,  
Please just remember me, as vivid as I used to be.  
Don’t forget, don’t forget, don’t forget, don’t forget…  
I’m paralyzed by the fact that I changed,  
In a paradise of nothing I can change,  
So please just remember me.  
Please tell me… tell me… just who lies within me?

Chapter fifteen  
Looking too closely by Fink:  
This is a song about somebody else  
So don’t worry yourself, worry yourself  
The devil’s right there, right there in the details  
And you don’t wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself  
By looking too closely  
By looking too closely  
No no no no…  
Put your arms around somebody else  
And don’t punish yourself, punish yourself  
The truth is like blood underneath your fingernails  
You don’t wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself  
By looking too closely  
By looking too closely  
No no no no…  
No no no no…  
You don’t wanna hurt yourself  
You don’t wanna hurt yourself  
And I could be wrong about anybody else  
So don’t kid yourself, kid yourself  
It’s you right there, right there in the mirror  
You don’t wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself  
By looking too closely  
Mmmmmmmm  
By looking too close  
Mmmmmmm  
Yeah…..  
Looking too closely  
You don’t wanna hurt yourself  
You don’t wanna hurt yourself  
By looking too closely

Chapter sixteen  
Curbstomp by Meg Myers (Ymir point of view):  
I'm a sinner  
I’m a liar  
Want forgiveness  
But I'm tired  
I'm addicted to the fire  
Let go, I'm ready for it  
Let go, I’m ready  
I'm a victim  
I'm a coward  
Try to wake up  
Don't have the power  
I'm a daughter in the choir  
Let go, I'm ready for it  
Let go, I'm ready  
Oh Oh Oh Oh  
I'm a shadow  
I'm a creeper  
Want forgiveness  
Getting weaker  
I'm addicted to the fever  
Let go, I'm ready for it  
Let go, I'm ready  
I'm a danger  
I'm a cipher  
Try to wake up  
No desire  
I'm a daughter in the choir  
Let go, I'm ready for it  
Let go, I'm ready  
Oh Oh Oh Oh  
No no no eyes baby  
No no no mind baby  
No no no smile baby  
No no no lies  
Lay me down tonight  
No lies  
Lay me down tonight  
Lay me down tonight  
Lay me, lay me, lay me, lay me down tonight  
Blood I want it  
Giving up the fight  
Blood I want it  
Lay me down tonight  
Blood i want it  
Take me to the sky  
Blood I want it  
Everything's alright now

  


  
  


 

 

  


  


  



	17. Fire and Gasoline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back to the 'present' (and the 'OMFG it's a book' chapter lengths) - hmm, not too much to say about this chapter except I had fun with it and it was a lot easier to write than the next one (that's giving me fits for some reason). Hopefully there won't be any weird formatting issues this time. 
> 
> As always, thanks so much for the kudos and comments!  
> *******

 *******

Levi passed by a nervous looking Moblit on his way to Hange’s lab; that wasn’t too unusual, as the poor man put up with *Hange* for a living, but the way the man studiously avoided meeting Levi’s eyes was more than a little suspicious. He paused for a second to watch Moblit scurry away before continuing on his way to meet up with Hange, determined to find out what had happened with Pixis earlier – if Erwin had revealed anything about Eren to the old drunk, he wanted to know now so he could string the manipulative asshole up by his own entrails.

He entered the lab, expecting to find Hange huddled over her computer while crunching away at some statistics or haphazardly mixing some random chemicals together, not bent over on a chair clutching at her sides, tears streaming down her face as she laughed hysterically. “All right, I am *seriously* telling Erwin that you’re useless to us now as anything other than Malform bait,” he informed the raving lunatic.

Hange appeared to try to stutter out something while shaking her head back and forth, her face an appalling shade of red. She rose up a few inches from the chair and collapsed on the floor, a heaving pile of insanity that Levi didn’t want anything to do with except that he needed some answers. Clicking his tongue in distaste, he skirted around the squirming madwoman to go collect one of the liquid-filled beakers that littered the surface of the nearest workstations. Figuring that he had an even chance of it containing something acidic, he stood about an arm’s length from Hange and dumped its content around the proximity of her head.

“Agh!”

So, not acidic then. He supposed that was good while he tossed the glass beaker aside. Meanwhile, Hange shot up onto her knees, her hands frantically wiping at the light yellow liquid that was streaming down her face. “You *asshole*! I spent days on that formula,” she wailed.

“Seems to be a good cure for senseless laughter to me, so the sacrifice was worth it.” He shrugged as he folded his arms over his chest. “Act like an idiot on your own time – I want to know how the meeting went with Pixis.”

Muttering under her breath things that it were probably in her best interest that he didn’t hear clearly, Hange shoved herself up onto her feet and stomped over to one of the lab’s sinks, where she removed her glasses and stuck her head under the stream of water to rinse whatever the chemical had been from her hair and face. After fumbling around a few times for a towel, she dried off as much as possible and turned to face him, damp bangs and messed-up ponytail sticking up in all directions around her still flushed face. “You are *such* an asshole.”

“Tell me something that I don’t know.”

For a moment a sly expression came over her face and she chuckled. “Oh, wouldn’t you *love* that, Captain Napoleon?” She threw the wet towel to the side and hooked her thumbs over the waistband of her white pants. “So, the meeting with Pixis, eh?”

Not liking how she’d changed the subject, Levi narrowed his eyes in suspicion yet nodded. “Yes, you shit for brains, the meeting with the Engineer’s commander. How did that go?”

“Hmm, someone a bit worried about his cutie? I still haven’t forgotten about the two of you in the hallway.” Her grin grew even wider. “You decide to listen to my advice after all?”

Levi took a step forward, his hands balling into fists and his eyes narrowing even more. “Hange…”

“All right, sheesh.” She held her hands up as if in surrender and rolled her eyes. “You’re supposed to be less grumpy after getting some-“

“Hange!”

“Okay!” Pushing back her unruly bangs, Hange let out a huff of air before she finally answered Levi’s question. “The meeting went well, you inconsiderate bastard.” She stalked over to a cleared off section of the lab where she’d set up a beaker of water to be boiled and lit the burner. “I figured we’d even have some tea and biscuits to celebrate, even though you don’t deserve it after trying to melt my head off.”

“As if there’s anything strong enough in your lab that’ll eat through the junk in your skull,” Levi muttered, but he joined her over at the station. “What did Erwin say to Pixis?”

Some of Hange’s bad mood seemed to vanish at the question. “Eh, you’ve got it bad, don’t you?” When he resumed glaring, she began to fuss with the tin of biscuits set out. “Well, we talked about ‘my’ research and how it proves that the vampires are doing their best to hide the fact that the outside is almost ready to be resettled, along with the help of the Chairmen. Pixis wasn’t too happy about that. Then we brought up vampires being in the MP and messing with the domes, and while I’m not sure if he’s 100% behind us on that, he’s willing to help out.” She shrugged as she peeled off the tin’s lid and then proudly displayed its contents to him for his approval; he wasn’t as crazy about sweets as she was, but they looked all right so he nodded.

“Erwin kept Eren and Mikasa a secret?”

“Hmm, yeah, he didn’t bring them up at all.” Hange paused to bite into a biscuit, moaning in pleasure at the taste in a way that made Levi want to step away before she tackled him to the floor in some perverted manner. “Oh, these are *good*.”

“I’m so happy for the two of you,” Levi snapped, more than a little sarcastic. “Do you think he’ll *keep* them a secret? Pixis isn’t an idiot – he’s going to want to know more information soon, especially if his people start dying.”

“Always looking on the bright side of things, aren’t you?” Hange removed the boiling water from the heat and poured it into the waiting pot. “Between the three of us, we’ll figure out some way to protect Eren’s secret.”  
  
“You better, because I can’t imagine that Mikasa will just idly stand by if she feels threatened.” Levi picked up a biscuit and gave it a try; it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t rate Hange’s near ecstatic reaction. He noticed his friend staring at him oddly and frowned. “What?”

“Yeah, because *Mikasa* will be the one coming after Erwin’s hide if that happens.” She did an exaggerated eye roll as she set the beaker aside. “You’re a bit more transparent than you’d like to think, Sweetie.”

He brushed the crumbs off of his hands before he rested them on the hilts of his blades. “I’ve no clue what an insane person like you is referring to.”

This time Hange remained quiet, she merely shook her head while she waited a minute and then poured them both some tea and went to fetch the milk and sugar. When she came back, she withheld the milk in one hand and shook the finger of the other in front of Levi’s face. “Nah-ah! So, tell me how things are going with Eren! That was quite the blush when I asked him about his collar!”

Dammit, why couldn’t that liquid have been acid? Levi scowled as he snatched free the milk. “I’m sure you’re very familiar with the aspects of two adults and what they do together when there’s a physical attraction.” Then he reflected upon that while he poured a bit of milk into his tea. “Never mind, I don’t want to know the perverted shit you get into with your victims.”

“Levi!” Hange wrung her hands together while she cried out. “How can you be so mean? I’ve only mentally scarred…” She ticked off several fingers and frowned. “Well, we won’t go into that right now, we’re talking about *you*!”

“And why is that, when there’s so much shit piling up around us that we should be drowning in it by now?” His friends had some seriously messed up priorities, but what else was new? “All I wanted was to make sure that Erwin kept his promise and to get some blood for Eren.” He regretted saying that last bit when he saw the way that Hange’s eyes lit up in a demented manner.

“Oh ho! So Eren’s stopping by again tonight, eh?” She leaned back against the counter, her freakishly long legs stretched out in front of her and the mug of tea held cupped in her hands. “You gonna do some more ‘practicing’?”

“I’m going to give him a chance to feed in private is what I’m going to do,” Levi snapped. “And just stop right now with the teasing when you’re the harping bitch who told me to give the little shit a chance.”

Hange pouted over the rim of her mug. “Aw, but you’re so cute together, how can I resist? Just like Napoleon and Josephine!”

Levi pressed his fingertips to his temples and wondered if he’d inhaled some noxious fumes when he’d poured that shit on the maniac. “Seriously, just how scrambled is your brain? He’s a fuckbuddy – or will be if we’re left alone enough to get to that stage.” Then he frowned as something occurred to him. “And what’s with all this ‘Napoleon’ shit? Only those with fangs call me that, not you.”

It was rare to see Hange truly flustered, but right now was one of those times; she nearly dropped the mug in her haste to straighten up and act innocent. “Uh, well, Eren called you it earlier and-“

“And you decided to follow along with the guy I’m swapping spit with? That’s disturbing as hell, even for a freak like you.” Levi grimaced then picked up his mug of tea to take the nasty taste that thought brought to mind out of his mouth. When he was finished, he set it aside and glared at the still obviously disturbed scientist. “Who the hell Is ‘Josephine’?”

“Ah, see, I was doing a little digging and found out a bit more….” Hange laughed, the sound as nervous as she looked just then, a bead of sweat sliding down the side of her face as she edged away from Levi.

Years of hunting Malforms and stalking easy targets before that had honed Levi’s senses, and they were pinging like mad right now that he should go in for the ‘kill’, even if he didn’t know what exactly the ‘kill’ was at the moment. “Hange, just *what* did you find out?”

“Did you know that Napoleon was a rather brilliant strategist, all things considered? I mean, he lost some rather important battles and that whole Russia campaign was a mess, but you could argue that- ack!” Hange scrambled to get away from Levi, but she was just too slow; Levi had her cornered against the workstation and unless she wanted to knock over several of her ‘works in progress’ just then, she was screwed. For a moment it appeared that she considered it, her body tensed enough to push up and over the surface behind her, and then she let out a sudden breath and hunched into herself. “You’re such an evil bastard.”  
  
“Takes one to know one,” Levi shot back. “Now, what did you find out?” Hange wouldn’t be aping Eren and Mikasa – wouldn’t be using a name that *Ymir* repeated, and if anyone wanted to talk about evil bastards, that was one right there – unless she found something that… “Why the *hell* were you laughing so much earlier?”

Hange slowly began to sink to the floor, as if she could somehow escape his notice that way. “You see… it’s really pretty funny, how expressions develop in language! They take on lives of their own, and of course as new words come in from different languages and events happen over time certain ones take precedent and older ones fade out due to-“

Levi loomed over her and drew out a blade several inches. “Explain before I gut you.”

“Napoleonapparentlywasaveryshortassholejustlikeyousotherewasthisphrase’Napoleoniccomplex’todescribeshortbastardswhohavemajorpersonalityissuesbecausetheyfeelinferiorduetotheirheightandtakeitoutoneveryonearoundthemandifthatdoesn’tdescribeyouIdon’tknowwhatdoes!”

It took several seconds for that vomit of words to make sense, and then Levi remained still above Hange for a moment longer. With an icy control that centered more on a certain honey-eyed brat than the lunatic cringing before him, he sheathed his blade and took a step back. “The blood – where is it?”

“Uhm, did you-“

“The. Blood. Give it to me.” The cold stare he directed at Hange made it clear that he wasn’t done with her, not by a long shot, but she was low in his priorities at the moment.

“Oh-kay.” Hange huffed as she jerked her right hand through her bangs and then went off to fetch something from one of the mini-fridges. She returned with a plastic bag filled with red liquid, detouring a moment to wrap it in one of the towels scattered about. “Here you go, one unit of AB, courtesy of Moblit. Tomorrow I’ll start pulling random people in for the ‘blood drive’.”

He snatched at the bag as soon as it was in reach, uncaring about anything else. Giving Hange one last icy look to let her know he wasn’t finished with her, Levi turned to leave the lab so he could go settle a score with a certain brat who thought he was so clever. 

*******

Eren tucked back the strands of his still damp hair and wondered why he felt so nervous while he headed to Levi’s quarters. It wasn’t as if he’d been in this situation hundreds of times before – hell, a lot of those times it had been with people he hadn’t even *liked*. He wasn’t even sure that he was showing up for more than a snack and a cup of tea, just like Levi had insinuated earlier, so he was probably getting tied up in knots about nothing.

The answer when he knocked on the door was almost instantaneous; Levi opened the door and stood there, an unreadable expression on his handsome face and still mostly dressed in uniform; he’d removed his jacket, gloves and gauntlet. Used to the man usually appearing either pissed off, sullen or bored, Eren frowned when he was greeted with silence and then motioned at the room behind the captain. “Uhm, are you going to let me in?”

“I suppose.” Levi’s tone just then was so laconic that Eren almost turned around and left; he didn’t feel like putting up with Levi if the man was in a shitty mood, but what else was there to do when he was stuck on base for the foreseeable future? Mikasa was out on patrol, Armin was busy with the new friends he’d made and Ymir and Krista were out on a rare night off. That left Eren to spend the time either alone, here with… whatever Levi was to him or allow Hange to run some tests on him. Maybe having Reiner and Bertolt tear him apart wasn’t such a bad idea….

“Get your ass in here,” Levi snapped, grabbing at Eren’s arm to drag him into the room.

Great, so they were back to that. Eren wanted to snap something in return but didn’t have the energy just then – this back and forth relationship crap was almost as draining as the constant fighting without an adequate source of blood. As if he needed any more proof, it was definite that Armin could be one heck of a manipulative, evil monster if given a chance for insisting that Eren submit himself to this… this *mess* with Levi.

“All right, I’m *in* already,” Eren complained. “So where is this ‘lit-“

He didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence or even his thought, as he suddenly found himself whirled around by the grip on his wrist and shoved *hard* against the wall. “What the fuck!” Eren bared his fangs at the bastard.

“Funny, I was wondering much the same thing, earlier.” Levi leaned in closer, his body pressed against the length of Eren’s. The man might be slightly smaller than him, but he had the advantage of added weight, packed on in muscles, that meant he wouldn’t be easy to dislodge.

“*You* invited me here, remember? If it’s just to smack me around, hate to break it to you but that’s not a kink I’m into.”

Levi did some teeth-baring of his own in a parody of a smile. “Ha, ha, brat. No, apparently you’re into being a sneaky little shit, thinking you can get away with being all funny and sly.” He kept his hold on Eren’s left wrist and gave it a painful squeeze. “Think you can play games, hmm?”

“What the *fuck* are you talking about?” Eren was about two seconds away from throwing this asshole across the room. “What games?”

“Tell me about ‘Napoleon’.”

Levi’s question was like a bucket of cold water on Eren’s temper – the world flashed back into color between one blink and the next, leaving Eren stunned and a bit confused. “Uhm, what? It’s a nickname…” Why was he asking that now? Was all of this really about that silly nickname? “You call me ‘Rebel’ so what’s the big deal?”

“Hmm, but that’s something Ymir says to annoy you.” Levi leaned in to brush his nose along Eren’s neck, and *damn* if the gesture didn’t make Eren shiver in response. “So why are you calling me ‘Captain Napoleon’?”

Eren went to push the bastard away and then he breathed on Eren’s neck, right where he’d just caressed it. Oh, someone wasn’t playing fair. “Because he was known as a dictator and an asshole, which seems to fit the bill when it comes to you.” He glared at Levi when the man pulled back enough to look at him.

“No, that doesn’t seem to be all.” The slight smile on Levi’s face hardened and his eyes narrowed. “Hange seemed to think it was pretty funny, you calling me that name.”

Oh, Eren was going to *kill* the scientist. He was going to let her bleed out slowly…. “Really?” Even though he was certain it wasn’t going to work, he tried the innocent routine on Levi, his eyes going wide and his lower lip trembling the slightest bit, even bending his knees just a little so their height was level.

Levi let go of his wrist and grabbed a fistful of his hair to yank his head back for his troubles. “Don’t even try it, brat. You’ve been *insulting* me this entire time, making fun of me, calling me *short*!”

Ah, of course *that* would be what the insecure bastard focused on, wouldn’t it? Eren snarled to get Levi to back off a little, part of his bangs falling into his eyes which were once more glowing. “So what? You can’t go two whole minutes without calling me ‘brat’, and how many times did you call Mikasa a ‘bitch’? Yet you’re going psycho over a nickname that a handful of people here can understand? Get over yourself!”  He used his strength to shove Levi away, even if he lost some hair in the process.

Stumbling backwards, Levi caught himself after a few steps and looked as if he wanted to come back swinging, his hands clenched into fists and his face flushed with anger. When he saw Eren scowling right back at him, he paused after a step and let out a slow breath, his right hand jerking through his hair so quickly that the straight strands stuck up in all directions. “You- it’s- this crap doesn’t happen to me. People don’t do this crap to me.” He actually sounded petulant just then.

Forcing his temper to cool down, Eren rubbed at the back of his sore head. “Yeah, well maybe that’s the problem. If you think I’m just going to kowtow to you all the time, Levi, this isn’t going to work.” At the man’s blank stare, Eren sighed and rubbed at his forehead instead. “It could have been worse, you know. I almost went with ‘Caligula’.”

Levi appeared curious despite himself. “And how is that worse than an implied inferiority complex,” he demanded to know, his arms crossed over his chest.

Maybe a change in topic wasn’t such a good idea. “Ah, he was an insane Roman emperor whose name meant ‘little boots’?” Eren winced when Levi’s expression morphed into ‘pissed’, grateful that he left out the supposed incest part…. “Look, we’re big into nicknames, all right,” he rushed to explain when Levi practically stalked toward him. “It’s a habit we pick up over the years – you never know if someone’s using an alias so you start calling them something that won’t stand out too much, something that they can explain away as a joke or a private thing between whatever relationship they feel it’s best to pass you off as this time. Sometimes it gets to be a private joke, what we call each other.”

He was once more pinned against the wall, with Levi’s hands pressed near either side of his head and the man scant inches away from him. “Like ‘Napoleon’, eh?” Grey eyes stared intently at him, possessing just a hint of warmth.

“Yeah, like ‘Napoleon’.” Eren dared to rest his hands on Levi’s hips. “You do love snapping out the commands, you know.” Had he managed to smooth things over?

“And I expect to be obeyed.” Levi’s eyes became heavy-lidded and he leaned in closer, his nose almost brushing against Eren’s jawline. “But I don’t think it’s fair that I’m stuck using someone else’s nickname for you. I think we should come up with something new.”

His eyes drifting shut in anticipation of the feel of lips against his neck, Eren whined in frustration when the meaning of Levi’s words sunk in. “What? Are you serious?” When Levi smiled in a particularly smug manner, he hissed in frustration and smacked the back of his head against the wall. “What are you, three years old?”

“Yes to the first, and not quite.” Levi jerked his hips forward, into Eren’s. “You’re already enough of a perv considering our age differences.”

“I’m not the one who’s rubbing up against the person he keeps calling ‘kid’ and ‘brat’, am I,” Eren pointed out with some satisfaction, only to lose it when Levi kept staring at him in that expectant manner. “All right, what type of nickname?” The bastard wasn’t going to let this drop, was he?

Levi shifted his left hand down until his fingertips stroked along Eren’s neck. “I’ll let you go with it being equally obscure as mine, but it also has to be just as annoying. It’ll be ‘our’ little joke.” His smile just then was anything but amused.

“Let me guess, you were one of those kids who were always bitter about ‘life lessons’, weren’t you,” Eren muttered. Armin was so *right* about that lack of emotional maturity.

Those fingers pressed hard against his neck for a couple of seconds. “Do you want to give me some suggestions or should I come up with some?”

“Fine,” Eren huffed. It was a little difficult to think properly when Levi resumed the caress, which was probably the bastard’s intent, but he did his best. “I’m not sure what you’re going for here-“

“Start with what other people called you while growing up.” Levi’s fingers moved up from his neck to clasp at his chin and keep his face from moving. “And nothing flattering.”

“You won’t be able to pronounce most of them since you don’t speak German.” Eren smiled a little at the thought of that. “I’ll try English first and then we’ll move on to some other languages.” He could be here all night, going through all of the ones he knew and the others he’d partially picked up over the years. “There’s the obvious – or at least they were back then – like psycho, nutter, fag, twink, pikey-“

“Wait, go back.” Levi’s hand tightened around Eren’s chin.

“Huh?” Eren blinked twice and tried to shake his head, but the tight hold on his lower face prevented that. “Uhm, what, pikey?”

“No, the other one. Twink.” A wolf-like smile spread across Levi’s face. “You grimaced a little when you said that. What does it mean?”

Oh great, the sadistic asshole had noticed. Eren batted the man’s hand away and sighed, suddenly in the mood to go smack Armin for landing him in this mess. “It’s… well, I don’t know if you should consider it a derogatory term or not. Back when people used to give a shit when others slept with the same sex, they used to classify who was what type, if that makes sense.” He was doing a lousy job of this, but he was tired and Levi had a way of throwing him off-balance. “Twinks… well, they were the younger guys who... looked young and cute. As soon as I made it clear that I only liked guys, I got called it a lot… especially because of how I wasn’t aging.”

“So who was calling you ‘twink’, hmm?”

“A lot of people.” Eren grimaced again. “It’s like Hange said, things were… well, people didn’t think twice about seeing Mikasa and me as commodities after the collapse, and I… definitely attracted a certain type. ‘Oh, here comes that cold Asian bitch and her twink brother.’” Eren felt his fangs start to peek out at the memory and did his best not to let his claws out as well, especially since he was still holding on to Levi’s hips. “They thought it was funny. ‘Why don’t you come here, twinkie, and let me show you another way to get some new boots for the winter?’ Stuff like that.”

Levi’s fingers once more found Eren’s neck and stroked up and down. “Well then, I think we’ve found ourselves a winner, ‘Twinkie’.”

Why wasn’t he beating the shit out of this asshole yet? “You’ve got to be kidding me! Didn’t you listen to anything I just said?”

“Yes.” Levi pressed hard against Eren’s right shoulder, a fierce glare seeming to drain the color from his grey eyes. “You insulted me in front of my people and to my face, so suck it up, brat.”

Eren moved his lips several times yet no words came out, he was that furious. Yet what Levi said did make an odd type of sense; he had deliberately insulted the man, had counted on the name being so obscure that Levi wouldn’t ever figure it out. Turnaround was only fair, he supposed.

He slumped against the wall and hung his head, a weak chuckle escaping despite his lingering anger. “You do realize that Mikasa’s going to go for your throat the first time she hears it, right?” Fine, he’d take his punishment like an adult and hope he could keep his sister from going ballistic. If he couldn’t, then….

Levi clicked his tongue as if to show how concerned he was over the idea. “Let her try – she’ll find it’s a bit more difficult to take me down lately, thanks to a certain twink.”

Eren jerked his head back up and found that Levi was still looking at him in that cold, hard manner with no hint of amusement whatsoever. “You’re really pissed off about this, aren’t you,” he asked, more than a little surprised by the fact.

The pressure against his right shoulder relaxed a little even though Levi’s expression didn’t change. “Wouldn’t you be?”

Not really – Eren’s temper tended to run hot and cold, so while he flared up, he didn’t tend to hold grudges that long unless blood was involved. Sure, being called ‘Twinkie’ was going to be annoying as hell, but compare it to being hounded over the world by a bunch of vampires? All a matter of perspective. “I’m sorry.” He began to slowly slide down the wall, his eyes cast up through his lashes as he stared at Levi. “It was just meant as a joke. Let me make it up to you.” Since talking didn’t seem to be doing any good, he decided to try a different tactic.

At first it looked as if Levi was about to bitch at him some more, and then it seemed to sink into that bitter little brain of his just how Eren was going to ‘make it up to him’ as Eren went down to his knees, his hands shifting to the front of Levi’s white pants. Eren had never seen those grey eyes grow so wide before, then they narrowed with something that appeared to be satisfaction.

“You have an awful lot to make up for, brat.”

At least the asshole had the intelligence not to call him ‘twink’ when he was about to suck him off. “Then I’ll do my best, Sir.” Eren gave Levi his most enticing smile while his fingers worked to undo the pants’ button and zipper. His smile strengthened as he felt Levi’s cock begin to stir already; he rubbed his hand gently against the rough material of the uniform before he pushed the pants down Levi’s muscular legs, as far as the leather boots would allow. Then he ran his hands up the man’s nearly hairless thighs, fingers trailing along the warm skin, feeling the occasional bump of a scar.

He leaned in as he grasped at the waistband of Levi’s boxer-briefs, nose briefly nudging aside the hem of the white shirt that fell past Levi’s hips. There was an amused snort and then Levi began to undo the buttons of his shirt the same time that Eren slowly pulled the underwear down, tugging them out just enough so the tumescent cock popped free as they skimmed along the man’s thighs. Eren followed their descent with his mouth and placed a kiss on Levi’s left hip, in the ‘v’ indent leading to his groin, along his thigh near the newly healed scar, a little lower… and resisted the urge to bite when he felt fingers tangle into his hair and pull him back up.

“Use the fangs and it’ll be the last thing you do,” Levi warned, the pissy look back on his face.

“Then don’t go putting ideas in my head or even worse, giving me *temptation* to do just that,” Eren shot back as he allowed his eyes to begin to glow.

Levi made another snorting sound but kept his *damn* *mouth* *shut*, so Eren decided that he could put his to use, finally. Really, here he was about to give the bastard a blow job, and he was bitching? Such an asshole. Glaring up at Levi for a few more seconds, he made a show of opening his lips wide and revealing his *non*-fangy teeth before holding the bastard’s half-hard cock with his fingers and lowering his head.

He stuck out his tongue and swiped it along the length of Levi’s cock, smirking at the shudder the contact produced. Swirling the tip of his tongue along the flared head peeking past the foreskin, he engulfed the cock with his mouth, sinking back onto his heels so he could stare up at Levi and look him in the eye. He knew from past experience that most of the men found this a turn-on, that they were attracted to the unusual color of his eyes and with Levi… well, this time he didn’t have to hide his true nature. He continued to let them glow yet prevented his fangs from triggering, a delicate balancing act that kept his senses extra-sharp.

He could smell Levi’s arousal and the bit of perspiration building on his skin. He could hear Levi’s increased heartbeat and quickening breath. Beneath his curved tongue as he licked up and down the man’s cock, as he continued to suck along its length he felt the rush of blood beneath the thin skin while it became fully erect. He could feel each minute twitch and spasm beneath his fingers while he cupped Levi’s balls and held on lightly to his left hip, could see how those grey eyes grew more and more dilated with each passing minute. The last of his anger melted away and desire simmered through him, that long-familiar languid hunger building inside as he breathed in Levi’s scent and tasted Levi on his tongue.

Levi let out a low moan and leaned over him to brace himself against the wall when Eren pulled his mouth off to once again run his tongue along the length of his cock, his breath blowing over the wet, sensitized flesh. “Fuck...,” Levi groaned, his head hanging down but his eyes still locked onto Eren’s. His right hand reached down to once more tangle his fingers into Eren’s hair yet he didn’t force it to move in any way, it was almost as if he wanted some type of contact with him. Eren gave his cock another lick before wrapping his mouth around it once more and sliding it completely down its thick length, throat relaxed to keep from gagging. “Fuck!”

Eren deep-throated a few more times, but judging from the way that Levi’s thighs trembled and his hips began to jerk forward, the poor guy didn’t have much left in him. Pulling back a little, Eren wrapped his left hand firmly around the base of Levi’s cock and slid it along with his mouth while he gave Levi’s tightening balls a gentle tug. He would have laughed if he’d been able to just then at the way that Levi nearly went cross-eyed, and pulled back a little more for what was to happen next.

Levi’s fingers tightened almost painfully in Eren’s hair when he started to come, breath hitching in little gasps as if he refused to allow himself to make too much noise. Eren slowed his strokes and kept his mouth still until the spurts and twitches stopped, and then sucked softly one last time before pulling away. Levi shuddered a little before sinking to the floor, unbuttoned shirt flaring out around him, eyes dazed and pants still shoved down his legs.

Eren swallowed then wiped at his mouth with the back of his right hand, amused as all hell at the sight before him; Levi appeared as disheveled as all hell, half naked and completely out of it. He drank in the sight since the man had one hell of a body, even if the personality was a bit lacking. “So, am I forgiven now?” He adjusted his own half-hard cock in his pants and willed both the erection and the hunger to fade; blowing Levi had been quite the turn-on, as was the sight before him, but he’d had lots of experience in ‘doing unto others’ and not worrying about himself until later, if at all. Right now… just wasn’t a good time, not with some anger and tension still simmering beneath the surface. He’d learned that the hard way over the years.

“Huh?” Levi shook his head as if trying to clear it. He seemed to realize that he was ‘letting it all hang out’ and scowled down at his lap before scrambling to his feet and leaving the room.

Eren hoped that meant ‘yes’ but didn’t take it for granted. At least he was confident enough in his skills that he’d derailed a certain stubborn bastard for the time being.

Levi appeared to have gone into his private bathroom, judging from the various sounds of flowing, flushing and running water. Eren amused himself by playing with his bangs until he heard footsteps approaching again and looked up to see Levi, his clothes once more in order, come closer with a towel in his hands.

“Get your ass off of the floor, it’s dirty.” He tossed Eren a damp towel while he bitched.

“Oh please, in your quarters? It’s probably clean enough to eat off of or something.” Eren caught the towel as he stood up, and used it to wipe off his hands and then his face. “Thanks.”

Levi grunted something incomprehensible as he took the towel back, disappearing again for a moment to put it away. When he came back, he kept his gaze locked on the floor, of all things. “So, what about you?”

“Hmm?” Eren rubbed the back of his neck while he tried to figure that one out. “Me?” Did Levi mean what was he doing here? “Uhm, don’t you have some blood for me? Or was there something else meant by that ‘little’ comment earlier?”

There was a heavy sigh followed by that annoying clicking sound as Levi raised his head and glared at him, his bangs framing his eyes. “No, you moron, what about *you*.” He stepped closer to Eren and grabbed him by his shirt. “Don’t you want something now?”

Yeah, he wanted his lousy human- oh. Talk about morons. “I think the blood and a cup of tea will be just fine,” Eren said as he pried Levi’s hands from his shirt. When Levi stared at him in confusion, he shook his head. “Look, save it for some other time when you’re not mad at me, okay? It’ll be more fun that way.” Even if it didn’t end up a total disaster tonight, he wasn’t in the mood for a pity fuck or some ‘tit-for-tat’ relationship. Things like that never turned out well, and this… this was fucked up enough to begin with that it didn’t need any other potential minefields added to it.

It looked as if Levi was going to argue with him – the man’s brows drew together and his eyes turned that icy grey – and then his expression smoothed out after a few seconds. His hand shot out to grasp at the back of Eren’s head and yanked him forward, and to Eren’s surprise he found himself kissed with initially an ardent amount of passion that slowly turned into something… something almost gentle. He slid his arms over Levi’s shoulders and surrendered to the kiss, allowing Levi to take it wherever he wanted and sighed with regret when it ended after what seemed to be much too short a time.

There was an actual smile on Levi’s face when he shifted back enough to look at Eren, one that was equally parts smug and pleased. “Fine, but *I* get to call the shots then.”

Eren rolled his eyes to show what he thought about that even as he agreed. “And you wonder why I think you’re bossy.” He got a very firm swat to his ass for his troubles, followed by an equally firm squeeze.

“Shut it, Twinkie, if you want your blood. Now go sit down.” Levi’s smile transformed into an evil grin, making it clear that he had no compunctions about holding said blood hostage if Eren thought to complain about the use of the hated nickname.

Barring his fangs in a silent protest, Eren did as he was told. Dammit, he *should* have gone with Caligula…. 

*******

“C’mon, Jean, we can’t stay here forever. We still have our patrol to finish.”

“I know, just give it a few more minutes.” Jean scowled at Connie and clenched his hand around the empty can of iced coffee. “Maybe she’s running late.”

Connie appeared ready to say something then seemed to think better of it, his mouth pressing shut as he shook his head. He leaned against the wall next to Jean and sighed. After about a minute, he resumed talking. “That Sasha was cute, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, a lot cuter than a short slacker like you deserves.” Jean grinned as he took to teasing his partner; when he wasn’t complaining about their double-shifts or their fellow MPs, Connie often brought up his blind date from the other day. “Way out of your league – you so owe me.”

“Hey, as if!” Connie pushed away from the wall and tugged on the hem of his jacket, as if it would make him look any taller. “Girls like it when guys aren’t all tall freaks like you – they find us adorable.”

“They find puppies and kittens ‘adorable’. Twerps like you they just take pity on.” Jean continued to grin as he rolled his eyes.

“Oh yeah? Well I’m not the one being stood up, am I,” Connie taunted.

Jean shoved away from the wall, his right hand held up in a fist. “That’s not true!” He noticed that he still had the can clenched in his hand and threw it in the recycle bin.

Connie’s expression was one of regret for a moment, then he forced it into something almost mocking. “Yeah? Then why won’t she give you a number to call her? Why won’t-“

“Look, Mikasa! You have a welcoming committee!” A cheerful voice rung out, followed by laughter. Jean and Connie both whirled around to spy three people in Wingers – no, Freedom Corps uniforms, Jean really had to stop thinking of them in that insulting nickname if he wanted to date one of them – strolling toward them. He recognized Mikasa immediately because of her red scarf and thought he remembered seeing the other two in Captain Ackerman’s elite squad upon occasion. The petite woman with reddish hair gave Mikasa’s shoulder a friendly pat before motioning to the store. “We’ll go grab something to drink while you catch up, all right?”

Mikasa nodded, so the woman grabbed hold of the man’s arm and pulled him toward the store. “Let’s go.”

“Petra, I refuse to be stuck buying ag- ack!“

“Shut up and come on!”

Mikasa slowed her pace as she approached Jean, her eyes downcast and her right hand fussing with her scarf. Jean wanted to ask why she always wore that accessory – was she cold or did it have certain sentimental value? He felt his palms begin to sweat and resisted the urge to rub them up and down his legs, felt the sensation of butterflies in his stomach as he took a step closer to the gorgeous and quiet girl. If only Marco was still here, since his friend would know what he should say to her, would give him some clue what would be the best approach to take; Marco always had the best insight into people….

“Uhm, hi,” he stuttered out, and was certain that Connie was rolling his eyes right now. “You came.”

Mikasa looked up at him, a slight smile on her pale, pretty face. “Yes – it’s our patrol.” When Jean’s grin slipped at the answer, she shook her head. “That’s a joke, you know. I told you I’d come.”

“Ah.” His nerves increasing, Jean scratched at the back of his head. Why was it so difficult to read this girl? It was in part why he liked her so much, but he felt like he’d been thrown into the deep end of the training pool with all of his gear on with her or something. “Yeah, I’m glad you did, though.” He thought he heard retching sounds behind him and resolved to smack Connie later.

“I’m really sorry about how our date ended the other night.” Mikasa’s hands twisted in the ends of her scarf as if she were just as nervous as he felt. “Will you let me make it up to you?”

Feeling as he’d been punched in the stomach, the air rushed out him that quickly, Jean needed a second or two to answer. “Yeah! Yeah, that would be perfect. When can you get out again?”

“And Sasha,” Connie shouted. “Don’t forget to bring Sasha!”

There was another of Mikasa’s slight smiles at the mention of her friend. “Don’t worry, I believe she’ll be very upset if I leave her behind,” she told Connie. Then she focused her attention back on Jean, her dark eyes bright as if she were amused or happy – Jean wanted to remember how she looked just then, her eyes sparkling, her cheeks slightly flushed and that faint curve to her lips. Damn, was she beautiful. “How about in two days time, around 15:00? We’ll have a patrol later that night, but we can manage a few hours.”

“That’s perfect!” Jean was pretty sure that their schedule would match up then, and if not, he would *beg* for someone to switch shifts with him and Connie if he had to – beg, cajole or use force, whatever it took.

Mikasa’s smile strengthened a tiny bit more. “Great.” She held out her left hand, and it took Jean a moment to remember that she’d done this before, had used his datapad to tell him where to meet up. He scrambled to hand it over.

“Ah, don’t you have one? It would be easier if I could contact you through that or a comm if something goes wrong,” he pointed out.

Her brows drew together as she typed out the location of where they’d meet. “Hmm, no, sorry. I got hacked once so I’ve avoided them ever since.” There was something… dark to her tone when she spoke, and then she shrugged as she handed his device back to him. “I always know where my brother and cousin are so we never see the need of using them.” She sounded normal when she spoke about her family, so much that he wondered if he’d imagined that part before.

“Okay, I guess I can see how that would make you paranoid. And we do know where you live.” He grinned just then so he didn’t come across as too creepy, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t just go to the Wi- the Freedom Corps base if he felt like she was blowing him off.

“Yes, you can always leave a message for me and Sasha there.” Mikasa fussed with her scarf and looked over at the store. “I think Petra and Oulo are done – we need to resume our patrol now.” She hesitated for a moment and then stepped forward, going up on her toes at the last moment to press a kiss against Jean’s check. “See you soon.” She was quick to pull up her scarf while she turned away, so Jean couldn’t quite see her expression yet he thought he caught a lighter hint of red on the exposed part of her face.

He stared after her as she met up with her squad-mates, accepting what looked to be a can of something from the other woman before the three of them resumed their patrol.

“Wow, you have it bad, don’t you?”

Connie’s voice startled him from his thoughts and made Jean jump. “What?”

His friend made a face as he motioned toward where Mikasa and her squad-mates had vanished. “You’re like a lovestruck fool, pining for his lady.” Connie grimaced again. “Now you even have me sounding all stupid.”

“Oh please, as if I haven’t had to put up with you going on about that Sasha chick the last couple of days!” Jean reached out to rub his friend’s shaved head. “’Isn’t she cute?’ ‘Do you think she likes short guys?’ ‘Maybe I should get her a box of chocolates for our next date?’,” he mimicked in a high pitched, mocking tone.

Connie took a swing at him, which he easily avoided as they resumed their patrol as well. “Yeah, well, it’s not often I find someone who… who ‘clicks’ with me.” Connie tugged at his jacket again. “I’ve been on a few of these double dates with friends and usually the other girl seems to be there on sufferance and barely speaks to me – especially once she sees me. Most of them aren’t as pretty as Sasha, too.” He hung his head for a moment before he lifted it back up, his jaw jutting forward and eyes gleaming. “It’s gotten better since I joined the MP, but all they seem to focus on is what I do, not who I am. It’s clear that Sasha’s not impressed with the MP.”

“No, and neither is Mikasa.” In a way, that confused Jean – he’d worked so hard for so long to get into the MP, to know that his future was set because he was part of the prestigious organization. There was no way he’d ever be a Chairman or a Minister, so the MP was as high as he’d ever climb in life, and he’d made it. Yet it was plain that Mikasa didn’t care about that… Mikasa and her crazy brother.

What was it about the two that he couldn’t get *either* of them out of his head for long? Mikasa… she was beautiful, was this enticing enigma with how she was so calm, so mature. Then there was her brother, this… this kid who looked as if he needed a couple more years before he should be able to join the Corps yet he’d fought at Captain Ackerman’s back and had calmly beheaded some poor little girl before she turned into a Malform, the only emotion on his too young face at the time blatant disgust directed at *Jean*. The siblings were so different… yet they both had these moments where they made Jean feel so immature, so clueless….

“You dreaming about your new girlfriend again? Should I give you and your hand a few minutes of privacy?”

“What?” Jean shook his head a couple of times and stared at a smirking Connie as the words sunk in. “What? You sick little-“ He attempted to swat at the back of his partner’s head, but Connie darted out of reach, laughing the entire time.

“Yep, definitely got it bad!” Connie’s voice rang out in a sing-song tone as he hopped in front of Jean.

“Oh shut up.” Jean rubbed at the back of his head, along the undercut, and sighed. “Maybe it’s not too late to request a new partner.”

Connie made a rude noise as he fell back in step beside Jean. “Yeah, right, and who’s that gonna be? Marlo? He’ll drive you insane with his ‘the MP should act more dignified’ crap within a day. Or maybe Hitch? You two will be at each other’s throats within an hour.” He patted himself on the chest. “No, you’re lucky you have me.”

“That Bertolt guy isn’t too bad,” Jean said just to play devil’s advocate.

Connie gasped in a dramatic manner and clutched at his chest. “You’d toss me aside for a *tall* guy? I knew it! Us shorties just don’t get the love!” He pretended to sob for at least half a block. “My life is over now.”

“It will be if we’re not back at headquarters on time.” They hadn’t done anything lately to piss off Commander Dok, and he wanted to keep it that way, especially since he had something to look forward to on his time off.

“Yeah, yeah.” Connie was quiet for a few minutes as they hurried along the path of their patrol. “So, do you think Sasha would like some chocolates? Where should I get them? That one shop on Chartier’s Street?”

Jean groaned and wondered just how long it was going to seem before the next date with Mikasa and Sasha arrived. 

******* 

Armin took a bite of his supposedly ham and cheese omelet and surveyed his friends at the table. Mikasa was busy planning her next date with Sasha, who kept eating between bites of her, Mikasa and Eren’s breakfasts. Eren seemed to be lost in his thoughts – which never was a good thing – as he sipped his coffee, his long bangs falling onto his face and threatening to end up in the mug, while Ymir was uncharacteristically quiet this morning. She was sitting rather close to Krista and urging her to eat some of Ymir’s neglected breakfast.

“Come on, I know it’s crap but you might as well enjoy it while you can.”

That appeared to have caught Eren’s attention, since he looked up from the spot he’d been staring at on the table and frowned, his eyes flashing bright for a moment. “Ymir….”

“What?” She did some frowning of her own, her brows drawing together as she pointed her finger in Eren’s direction. “You telling me that you’re going to keep denying me a simple request? That you’re going to deny *Krista*?” She reached over to grasp her girlfriend’s chin and tilted Krista’s face to look at Eren as well. “You’d be so heartless?”

Armin couldn’t believe that Ymir was bringing up the topic here, in front of a bunch of ‘strangers’ even if she was caging it as carefully as possible, and wasn’t the only one judging from the incredulous looks on Mikasa and Krista’s face. As for Eren, he sighed in what appeared to be exhaustion and shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”

“Oh, isn’t it? You get over whatever issues you have and you do what you’re meant to do.” Ymir sounded downright vicious just then; she could be sardonic as hell at the best of times, but she usually didn’t turn this mean in Armin’s limited experience with the woman.

Eren continued to stare at her while only Armin’s hand on Mikasa’s arm kept his friend sitting on the bench. Eren eventually had to dip his chin lower so his bangs covered how brightly his eyes were glowing, the one sure sign of his temper. “You really don’t get how to ask for a favor, do you,” was all that he eventually said, the words coming out with a slight lisp which indicated that he was hiding his fangs.

“Yeah, well, I seem to recall doing your ass an awful lot of favors over the years,” Ymir mumbled as she pushed aside her breakfast tray. “Don’t know why it’s such a big deal for you to do this one for me.”

“Ymir!” A blush spread across Krista’s face as she tugged on Ymir’s left arm. “He’s right, you know. You shouldn’t be asking like this – and not here.” She glanced at Daz who was sitting a couple of seats away and watching them with obvious confusion.

“You guys don’t make any sense,” the teenager complained. “It’s like listening to half of a conversation all of the time.”

“Then don’t eavesdrop,” Ymir barked at him.

“And here I thought you’d be in a good mood after going out on a date yesterday,” Armin remarked, doing his best to ease some of the tension at the table. He patted Mikasa’s arm to try to get her to relax and glanced at Eren, who was still eyeing Ymir through his bangs as if two seconds away from tearing into her.

He didn’t expect Ymir to quickly snap her head in his direction and give him an inscrutable look for several seconds. “Yesterday was fine, Blondie. Now mind your own business, too.”

Okay, that was a bit uncalled for, wasn’t it? Before he could puzzle out Ymir’s odd behavior – and do it before Krista throttled her girlfriend, if the growing expression of rage on the pretty blonde’s face was anything to judge by, a deep voice called out to their table.

“Oi! Twinkie! Get your ass in gear, practice begins in five minutes.”

Confused over whom Captain Ackerman was calling out, Armin glanced around to find a huge grin spreading across Ymir’s face, shock and then rage morphing across Mikasa’s, and startling resignation on Eren’s as he lifted his head.

“Ohhh, Levi, getting some makes you even more manly! Shout out some more orders, it’s turning me on!”

“I am about *three seconds* away from showing these pathetic excuses of shitstains the proper way of decapitating a Malform while using you as an example!” Captain Ackerman looked ready to carry out his threat on Captain Hange, who merely beamed in deluded joy at her irate friend.

Meanwhile, Mikasa had slowly stood to her feet, her hands balled into fists on the table to thankfully hide the fact that her claws had most likely extended. “What did you call my brother?”

Captain Ackerman stopped glaring at Captain Hange long enough to turn the virulent look Mikasa’s way. “It’s his new nickname.” The right corner of his mouth twitched up the slightest bit. “Right, Twinkie?”

Eren let out a low moan and cradled his head between his hands. “I hate my life so much right now.”

Ymir let out a cackling laugh as she leaned over to thump an obviously miserable Eren on the back, while Armin shared looks with Krista, Daz and Mina over what they were missing *this* time. What was the big deal about ‘twinkie’? “Oh, *how* the *hell* did I let that one slip by me? It’s *perfect* for you!” Ymir laughed some more while Mikasa smoldered with rage.

She let out a noise that sounded like a mangled snarl and lunged forward, the motion aborted by Eren yelping in surprise and wrapping his arms around her waist. “Mikasa! Don’t!” He wrangled his sister back to the table while Captain Ackerman merely watched on in seeming boredom. “It’s all right! It’s… it’s a private joke between us, all right?”

“He’s insulting you!” She twisted in Eren’s arms and actually scowled down at him. “You’re just going to allow him tp keep doing that to you?”

Eren sighed as he let go of his sister and reached up to fuss with her scarf, which had loosened in the struggle. “It’s all right,” he repeated again. “Look… I’ll explain later, but just let this slide for now, please?” His hands lingered on her shoulders while he gave her a pleading look.

Mikasa’s anger lasted for a few more seconds in the face of Eren’s blatant attempt to influence her emotions, and then she wavered and gave in; Armin snorted softly and reflected on how the siblings felt that *he* could be the manipulative one when he’d clearly learned his whole ‘innocent’ routine and more from Eren.

She whispered something too soft to be heard to Eren and then summoned back her glare to send it Captain Ackerman’s way. “We’ll talk later.”

“Wonderful. So looking forward to it,” he replied, his bored expression remaining unchanged in the face of her ire. He shifted his attention to Eren and jerked his chin in the direction of the dining room’s exit. “Come on, we’re wasting time here.”

“Yeah, okay.” Eren gave Mikasa a quick hug before he hurried to Captain Ackerman’s side. “Did you ever hear the expression ‘bull in a china shop’,” he asked once he approached the man.

“What type of crazy shit are you talking about now, brat? If this is another way-“ Their voices faded away as they left, heads bowed together and Captain Ackerman keeping a clearly possessive grip on Eren’s right elbow.

Captain Hange let out a happy sigh, her hands clasped to her chest beneath her chin as she stared after the two. “Aren’t they so cute together?”

“Yeah, if you like your couples psychotic as all hell,” Ymir grumbled as she rose up to her feet. “I don’t know which one is more messed up, which is saying something.”

Krista jumped to her feet and gave her girlfriend a light punch in the ribs. “As if you have much room to talk?” She smiled as she spoke, as if to take the sting out of the words.

Ymir frowned at first and then shook her head. “What does that say about you, darling?” Krista merely laughed as the two of them walked away with their trays.

The captain groaned and rubbed her left side for some reason. “I guess that means I should get my butt in gear, too.” She glanced over at Armin. “You all right with working in the lab for now? Sorry that I’ve been so busy…”

He didn’t need her to finish the explanation. “It’s fine, really.” She was supposed to be training him, but she needed to learn how to fight vampires as much as possible first. “I’ll look into the research we’re working on and maybe run an errand if it’s all right.”

Captain Hange let out a happy noise and reached over to muss up his hair. “Such a good kid! I’ll see you later.” She hurried after Ymir and Krista.

Figuring it was time for him to leave, he said his goodbyes to Sasha, Daz and Mina. Mikasa was waiting to walk with him as he dropped off his tray and followed him out of the dining room. “So you’re still working with Captain Zacharius?”

“Yes, he’s pretty good.” She fidgeted with her scarf a little. “It’s a little nerve-wracking, waiting for… ‘them’ to strike next.”

“I can imagine.” Especially since they would be targeting Mikasa since Eren was being kept on the base. Would they try to kidnap her to use her as bait for Eren or would they send her back with some sort of message? Armin felt a rush of anger at the thought of anyone harming his dear friends. “But this time you’ll be prepared for them.”

“I hope.” Mikasa didn’t sound too convinced just then, and gave him a quick wave as she went on her way.

Well, that was a cheerful thought. Armin watched her walk away for a few seconds before he headed to Captain Hange’s lab. He knew that his friend hadn’t been completely behind the idea of using the Freedom Corps to help them fight back against the vampires, but did she really believe the human fighters to be so hopeless as allies? That didn’t bode well for Eren’s new relationship, let alone their future….

Armin entered the lab and settled down at the workstation he’d come to think of as his own over the last several days. He started up the computer and began digging through the information that Captain Hange had sent to him on the Malform victims that she’d collected over the years. Next to that he pulled up the blood samples that Eren and Mikasa had begrudgingly provided.

There was so much that they didn’t understand about Grisha Jaeger’s research, not only the how’s but the all important ‘why’ as well. What had been his goal when he’d injected Eren with the serum all those years ago? Had it been a simple test serum? Had he been doing his best to ensure that his son didn’t die along with his wife? Was it the best way to keep his work from falling into the wrong hands? Was it even a complete serum or had Grisha Jaeger passed on what he’d been able to at the time, an incomplete cure that had doomed his son and daughter to an immortality that wore on them with each passing year? Were they even meant to be vampire/Malform hybrids?

Armin wasn’t certain that Grisha Jaeger meant to produce a cure that would allow humanity to live forever, outside of being beheaded. The logistics of it… the logistics of it were a nightmare, to put it in plain words. If some people thought that the solar flares and Malform attacks were Nature’s way of redressing the insults that humans had done to Earth, to wipe off the majority of the plague that civilization had become, then an immortal race that kept on multiplying was asking for a true Armageddon. Perhaps it was meant to fend off the Malform, yes, and even provide some protection to the damaging UV rays, but not turn humans into vampires themselves. Then there was that cryptic comment to Eren about his ‘instincts’, which made Armin suspect that perhaps Grisha had tailored the serum with his son specifically in mind as there were times when Eren could be… decidedly more savage than Mikasa. As much as he teased his friend about his temper and not thinking things through, he lived in dread of seeing Eren lose control, of the veneer of humanity vanishing from Eren – never afraid for himself, but for the deaths that would mount up around them.

So he stared at the results of the various DNA analysis and did his best to see if there were any obvious differences until his head began to hurt, even if he wasn’t sure this was the right approach to take in hopes of finding a cure. Sure, there *had* to be something there that made Eren and Mikasa different from the Malform… but Armin wasn’t certain that it would really help them in the long run. He had a sinking feeling that they really would have to unearth whatever it was that Grisha Jaeger had hidden in that security deposit box if they had any hope of protecting people from Malform attacks.

Feeling the need for a break, he got up and left the lab. Captain Hange should still be training with Ymir for another hour or two, so he’d go do something he’d wanted to do for a couple of days, ever since Eren had let him in on the ‘big secret’. He made his way off base, telling the few friends he passed along the way that he was in the mood to grab a bite to eat outside.

True to his word, he stopped and got some grilled chicken and pita bread at one of the food stands not too far from the Freedom Corps base, which he ate as he walked around the dome. It wasn’t much better than what was probably going to be served at lunch today, but it felt good to be moving after sitting down for so long. He received some sidelong looks as he walked about, probably because he was in his Freedom Corps uniform but alone and not wearing any weapons, but people gave him a polite nod when he smiled at them. The two times he came across other members of the Corps, all he did was say that he was taking a break from Captain Hange and they laughed while waving him on.

After nearly an hour of wandering around he turned back towards base, frustrated at having no luck in finding his objective. It wasn’t as if he had the clearest picture of his goal and a set destination, but still.… He’d gone several blocks when he spotted two young women in the black and green MP uniforms, one a brunette and one a blonde, and he felt a bit of excitement. Hoping that he wasn’t about to make a fool of himself – or worse – he hurried to catch up with them.

“Annie?”

The young blonde’s back went stiff and she stilled, causing her partner to stop after a few steps when she realized that she was walking alone. The blonde paused for a moment before turning around, her pale blue eyes narrowing in either displeasure or disappointment when she noticed Armin.

“Annie! It’s so good to see you.” Armin stepped forward with a huge grin on his face. “It’s been ages,” he lied blithely, counting on the people passing by to keep him alive.

“You know this guy?” The brunette nudged Annie in the side.

“You could say that.” Annie’s eyes narrowed a touch more before she forced a weak excuse for a smile on her face. “Hitch, give us a few minutes, okay? I haven’t seen Armin here in a while and I’d like to catch up.”

“You and your old friends,” the MP chided, but she did as Annie had asked, pulling out a datapad as she stepped away.

Well, wasn’t it interesting how Annie knew his name? Armin forced aside the feeling of nervousness as the vampire approached, since he’d basically set up this little meeting. “I wasn’t sure you’d recognize me,” he admitted.

“Please, I know everything about Eren, including the little stray he took in not so long ago.”

Ouch, that was a bit insulting, wasn’t it? Armin winced not only at the words but the mocking tone in which they were spoken. “Yet here I am.” He held out his hands and motioned to himself. “Isn’t that a bit surprising?”

Annie let out a scoffing sound and stopped about a foot away from him. “What? Your continued existence? Don’t count yourself so important, Arlert. I decided to allow Eren to play house for a bit – it actually made it easier to track him for once.” A cruel smile twisted her lips, made her pretty face appear predatory under the false lights of the dome. “You were of great service to us.”

This… this wasn’t what Armin wanted to hear. He didn’t come here to find out that he really was Eren and Mikasa’s greatest weakness, that instead of helping them that he was only serving to tear them down. For a moment he was ready to turn and retreat, to slink away until he found either of the siblings and confirmed that he hadn’t betrayed them.

Then he remembered why he had come here, why he’d taken such a major risk. “And here I came to let you know something you might find interesting.” He smiled in the face of Annie’s bland expression. “You might want to back off on chasing after Eren, as it’s possible that we might be on the trail of a lead that’ll direct us toward a cure for… what’s affecting you. If you keep hounding him or worse, you might jeopardize your chance to get your hands on a formula that’ll reverse the effects of your disease.” He took a deep breath and waited to see what Annie’s response would be.

She was quiet for several seconds and then shook her head. “Are you insane? Do you actually think you can convince me that you can change things? That we would *want* things to change? Why would I give up what I am to be something so weak and mortal?”

“Because you were good enough at it to convince Mikasa and Eren that you were mortal all those years ago.” Armin dared to reach out to touch Annie’s arm, to forge some sort of connection with her other than insults. “You must be more than… you must still cling to some aspect of it after all this time. And if you take Eren by force, if you tear him away from us… you risk losing that. Do you really want to limit your choices like that?”

She stared at him as if he was some sort of unidentifiable creature, her attention unwavering for almost a minute. Then she shook her and took a step back. “You don’t understand – we *need* him.”

“’We’, or ‘you’?” Armin let his hand fall back down to his side. “Are you doing this for yourselves or because you’ve been told to do it? I would think that someone who were able to convince Eren and Mikasa that they were friends are more than just unthinking soldiers.”

Annie continued to back away. “You… I have to leave now.” She hastily turned away and went over to join her partner, whispering something to her to get her to stop playing with her datapad. Armin watched her leave – had the impression that she was *fleeing* of all things. He watched them make their way down the street for about a minute or two before he continued on his way back to the Freedom Corps’ headquarters.

*******

Levi had just finished dressing after his shower when he heard a knock at the door; at first he had hopes that it was Eren, and then he recognized Hange’s distinctive knock pattern. He paused for a second, wondering if he could pretend that he hadn’t heard it and then figured that she was stubborn enough to not go away if he didn’t answer. “What the hell do you want,” he asked as he opened the door.

Dressed for once in the Corps’ off hours uniform, Hange basically barged her way into the room, her hair gathered into a loose bun at the back of her neck and appearing almost half undressed without any sort of jacket. “Aw, you’re making me feel so unloved! Can’t I just stop by for a cup of tea? Do I have to have a spectacular ass and be putting out for a social visit now?”

Wishing that he’d put back on his blades when dressing after his shower, Levi clenched his hands into fist and glowered at the bitch as she made herself at home. “What, you going to suck my dick, too?”

Hange placed her hands on her hips and stared at his crotch. “I usually don’t put out unless you buy me a drink. Where’s the whisky?”

“As if I’d let a crazy bitch like you anywhere near my dick,” Levi scoffed as he went to sit behind his desk.

“As if you’d let *anyone* without a Y chromosome near your dick.” Hange rolled her eyes as she settled herself in the chair and made herself comfortable. Then she made a big production of pulling out a bottle of something clear from the bag she was carrying. “It’s not whisky, but it’s semi-decent vodka.”

“It’s alcohol, at this point it’ll do.” Levi was up on his feet again to fetch a pair of glasses for them to use and returned to the desk, where he found a suspiciously wide grin on his friend’s face. “Okay, spit it out,” he demanded as he set the glasses on the desk.

“So it’s safe to say that Eren’s well acquainted with your dick at this point?” When he glared even more at the nosy bitch, Hange cackled with demented glee. “Yes! I *knew* you were glowing this morning! So what, there was actual suckage occurring? Something more than that?”

“Hange, I will-“

“Oh, spare me the threats.” She made a rude noise and began to pour them both a generous amount of vodka. “I have a purely scientific interest here – I want to know just how good a vampire-hybrid is at sex after living for so long.” She waggled her eyebrows while she raised her glass in what Levi assumed was a toast. “So, did he curl your toes? Blow your mind as well as your cock? You know he’s clean, right? His blood work showed no diseases whatsoever, so you can ride him bare-“

“HANGE!” Levi’s throat actually hurt, he’d shouted so loudly. Taking a moment to toss back the shot of alcohol, Levi slammed the glass back down onto the table as the alcohol burned down his throat and did his best to resist throttling the annoying pest. “How the *hell* is this any of your business?”

She sniffed as she sat back in the chair, the glass of alcohol held close to her chest. “Please, you’re fooling around with a millennial old vampire-hybrid, why wouldn’t I feel it’s my business?” She paused to toss back the shot as well. “Plus, somehow he’s healing you,” she added a moment later, almost as an afterthought.

Levi was about to start shouting again, but that last bit made him fall silent and reach for the bottle of vodka. “I have no fucking clue what you’re rambling on about.” Maybe if he got drunk quickly, he could pretend to no longer be able to speak.

Hange’s eyes got that fanatical gleam which signaled that she was on the trail on something and wouldn’t let go even if it meant that it would come down to mass destruction and murder. “Sure you don’t.” She waited until Levi refilled his glass to do the same with hers. “Let me see if this jogs your memory – you get attacked by a Malform yet somehow heal in record time. Remember that?”

He shrugged before he downed the second shot. “I told you, it wasn’t that bad of a wound.”

“Right.” Hange raised her glass in another toast. “That still doesn’t explain how the wounds you did have healed in record time, enough so that you could fight toe to toe with a vampire so quickly afterwards. Or heal from those wounds in no time at all as well.” She gave him a rather satisfied grin before she drank down the shot of vodka. “And then there’s the black eye – or *was* the black eye.”

… dammit, he had forgotten about how quickly he’d been healing in the last week or so, thanks to Eren’s blood. “I guess the nanos have just been working-“

“Don’t even try it!” Hange slammed her glass down onto the table with so much force that he was surprised that it didn’t break. “You’re getting the same nanos as everyone else! Now, when I factor in the research I received from Armin, research that can’t possible have been done in the past five or ten years but more along the lines of thirty or more… I have to ask myself, ‘what is the common denominator that would allow for someone to have an extended life and an enhanced healing ability’?”

Shit, so there was Armin to consider as well – Levi knew that Eren was trying to hide *that* little fact. “How long have you been drinking this vodka?”

Hange slapped her right hand onto the desk, her eyes narrowed and her entire demeanor radiating a deadly seriousness that made him lean back in caution. “Don’t fuck with me, Ackerman. Not about this. I put up with your shitty attitude and Erwin neglecting my department ‘for the good of humanity’, but right now I’m on to something, and I *know* I’m right.” She shoved the chair back with an awful grating sound and stood up. “I’ve been on to several things, in fact, only to be told to back off by Erwin and Shadis for too fucking long, and NO LONGER,” she spat out. “SO TELL ME THE TRUTH BEFORE I KICK *YOU* IN THE DAMN HEAD!” Her face was flushed and she panted for air as if she’d gotten all of her pent up anger out in that sudden rush.

Levi sat back in his chair for several seconds and then calmly poured himself another shot. “Are you done now, you psychotic bitch?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Hange shrugged before she sat back in her chair. “I’m serious about the threat, you know. Something is enabling you to heal faster than normal, and I know it has something to do with Eren.”

He poured her another shot as well, and then reached over to grab her by the front of her shirt before she could react. “You threaten me again and I’ll break your fucking neck before you can even blink, you understand?” He waited for her to nod before he released her. “This is not a fucking game, you shit for brains. I’m not keeping secrets from you just to piss you off or to fuck with your research.” He clicked his tongue in annoyance as he sat back in his chair.

“No, you’re doing it because it involves Eren.” Hange didn’t sound upset about the threat – she smiled as she picked up the glass and tossed back the shot. “Sweetie, do you have it *bad*.” When Levi made to grab her again, she held up both hands, the glass still in one of them. “It’s not a joke, it’s just an observation, but it’s the truth. Now, tell me how the hell it works – is it proximity based? Saliva? It can’t be sperm because the two of you just moved on to that level of intimacy, right?”

“You- I’m seriously going to gut you one day.” Levi grabbed the bottle and began to drink straight from it. Seriously? His quiet night in had gone to discussing swapping spunk with the brat with Hange? Why couldn’t he be out fighting Malforms or something? “It doesn’t involve… *that*,” he spat out once he felt that he’d drank enough to make this conversation bearable. Dammit, he *knew* that the maniac would wait and then pounce on him about this topic, he *knew* it. “Eren gave me his blood after the fight in the park.”

“Blood.” Hange’s eyes grew unfocused and she pulled out her notepad so she could write down in it. “Of course. I’m shocked that you of all people would ingest something so unsanitary, but blood is a good medium, considering what he is – and when considering Armin, too.” She was busy for a minute and then looked back up at him. “So how does it work?”

Levi shrugged, the bottle of vodka still held in his hands. “From what the damn brat told me, if you take the blood long enough, it keeps you from aging. Short term effects is enhanced healing and it protects you from Malform bites – that’s how he got me to take it that one day. Once you stop taking it, it’ll wear off so it’s not as good as being turned.”

Hange made a happy humming noise. “It would be interesting to see how much healing ability you still have, but I’m sure Erwin would object if you’re injured and unable to fight.”

“Erwin?” Levi picked up his empty glass and threw it at the crazy bitch. “*I’ll* be unhappy!”

“Well, just get your cutie to give you more blood, then!” Hange frowned as she leaned over to snatch back the vodka bottle. “You know, why don’t you just see about Eren turning you?”

That question prevented Levi from keeping the bottle from being snatched away. “What the *hell* are you talking about now, you delusional lunatic?”

Hange grinned around the lips of the bottle before taking a long swig. When she was done, she pointed the index finger of the hand she had wrapped around the bottle’s neck. “Come on, tell me you haven’t thought about it, what it would be like if you were turned by Eren and could live forever. I sure do.” She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “The things I could research if I had *centuries*….”

“I don’t know if humanity could survive being tormented by your crazy ass for that long,” Levi muttered. He closed his eyes as the mere thought of it and shuddered. “Give me back that damn bottle.” He opened his eyes and glared until a pouting Hange handed it over, and grimaced in distaste as he wiped at the neck of the bottle. “This life has been shitty enough – why would I want it to last indefinitely?”

“Hmm, I don’t know, because you wouldn’t grow old, you’d have a kick-ass healing ability and a cutie at your side.” Hange leaned forward and folded her arms on the desk so she could rest her head on them, a dreamy smile on her face. “He really does have a nice ass, you know.”

He so wasn’t drunk enough for this shit. Figuring that the bottle would have to be clean enough, Levi set about draining it dry. The liquor was a pleasant buzz in his blood when he set the mostly empty bottle back down again. “Look – we’re fuckbuddies. Mostly fuckbuddies. We haven’t gotten to the actual fucking yet and we better for all the shit I’m putting up with right now. But yeah, we’re just gonna fuck around for a bit and then go our separate ways. Don’t see how me being turned has anything to do with it.”

Hange nuzzled her arm for a few seconds. “And you call me delusional? Oh Sweetie….” She twisted her head back and forth on her arms. “But one thing at a time. Are you really fine with dying?”

Why was she talking such shit? “Who is? I just….” He shook his head and finished off the last of the vodka. “I don’t want to think about this shit, okay?” His vision was blurry and things were so wonderfully distant right about now.

“Aye aye, Captain.” Pushing back into a sitting position, Hange failed at a pathetic attempt at a salute, her right hand smacking into the vicinity of her left shoulder. “If you don’t wanna talk then… then I’m gonna go play in the lab. Maybe see if I can figure out those locked files that Armin downloaded….” She had a too pleased grin on her face as she staggered to her feet.

“Whatever.” Levi watched her stumble toward the door and leave and sat at his desk for a few minutes. What would it be like to live forever? He was used to people dying on him, to being alone, so he didn’t think that would be any problem…. Shoving away from the desk, he stumbled over to the sink, the dirty glasses in hand, and rinsed them out. Then he went to his bed and collapsed in it, deciding to lie down while waiting for Eren to arrive. He’d just lie down with his eyes closed and rest for a while…..

*******

Eren slowed down when he noticed what appeared and *smelled* to be an inebriated Captain Hange stumbling toward him, a ridiculous grin on her face. “Eren! Cutie! What are you doing out and about?” She nearly tripped over her feet in her haste to reach him. “Is this what they call a bootie call? Are you about to do something to make Levi less of such a grumpy bastard?”

“Ah….” He flinched when she threw her arms over his shoulders and barely resisted lashing out at the unwanted contact. “I’m not sure you should be-“

“Aw, it’s okay, there’s no fraternization rules here!” Captain Hange was practically yelling in his ear, which *hurt* dammit. Didn’t she remember about his enhanced senses? “You could bang anyone you want – though Levi might take offense.” She leaned back enough to look him in the eye and sniffed as if she was congested. “You wouldn’t do that to my grouchy Sweetie, would you? I know he’s a psychotic asshole, but he’s still my Sweetie.”

“Captain, I think you’re drunk. Maybe you should-“

The crazy woman cut him off again, which was starting to piss off Eren. “If you think I’m bad, you should see Levi!” Captain Hange let out a loud cackle of a laugh and began to drag him in the opposite direction of Levi’s quarters. “Trust me, cutie, he’s not gonna be of any use to you tonight!”

What the *hell* was it with these people dragging him around like a dog on a leash? Eren gritted his teeth and pulled on his captive wrist, but Captain Hange was surprisingly strong for her lanky build. “Captain, I really think-“

“Nope, alcohol has a known effect on blood flow, which means no boner, and decreases the big O as well. So no fun for you *or* Levi. I’m doing this for both of your sakes.” Captain Hange gave him a demented grin when she glanced over her shoulder. “But *you*, you look perfectly fine. I’m thinking you can help me with a few experiments!”

“Oh. Yay.” Eren wasn’t seeing a way out of this other than biting off the crazy woman’s arm – which wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility, to be honest. “What type of experiments?”

“Hmm, that wasn’t the only bottle of vodka I have,” Captain Hange proudly exclaimed as she nearly ran into a wall.

Well, if he wasn’t going to get laid tonight, at least he had some hope of getting mildly drunk. Eren allowed himself to be shanghaied on the chances that this would be more interesting than dealing with a drunk, pissy lover who might not even be able to get it up.

*******

Annie pretended to be paying attention to her datapad while the argument grew louder in the common area; Marlo was looming over her partner, he was standing so close to the girl, his face so flushed with strong emotion that he appeared even more unattractive than usual. “It’s the MPs’ responsibility to look after the welfare of the dome’s citizens! Pietr and Amir should have looked into that missing person’s request – they shouldn’t have just sent off those people like that!”

Hitch sneered up at the tall kid, unconcerned about their difference in height. “Oh get over yourself! Pietr said he checked and there’s no record of the woman! Those people are nuts!” She threw her hands up in the air as if she was at her wits end. “You need to stop doing this – you’re an *MP*. Stand with your own or hand in your uniform!”

“I’m trying to make everyone proud to be wearing the MP uniform,” Marlo practically bellowed. “For too long-“

Annie tuned out the familiar rant as she pocked her datapad and left the room – anyone who had been in the kid’s vicinity the past couple of weeks could recite the diatribe by heart at this point, and while she privately agreed with him, nothing was going to change. In fact, complaining about how corrupt the MP had become was only going to get the kid killed.

Strolling down the MP base’s hallways as if she had no particular destination in mind, she quickly came to a little used section of the building and snuck into a neglected storage room that Bertolt had taken the time to clear out over the last couple of weeks. Bertolt and Reiner were already waiting inside, dressed in their uniforms and ready to go out on patrol.

“Hey,” Reiner called out to her, the quick gleam of red in his eyes the only obvious sign of temper. “Took you long enough.”

“The main room was a bit more crowded than usual tonight, so I waited for a good distraction before leaving.” She folded her arms over her chest and glared at the idiot. “We don’t want people to start asking inconvenient questions when we’re so close to the end.” Her claws flexed at the thought of yet another failure; she had to take a deep breath and will her fingers to return to normal before she tore the fabric of her light grey sweatshirt.

Reiner shifted about on top of the old desk on which he was sitting as if he was uncomfortable. “About that – do you really think you can trust those humans? I don’t see why we can’t just take Eren down ourselves.”

“Because we haven’t seen Eren since you two revealed yourselves, and he’s got a bunch of humans who know how to fight willing to throw themselves in our way on his side.” Annie struggled to control her temper as she explained *yet* again why this plan was for the best. “We’ve been trying for centuries to take Eren down in a fight and it hasn’t worked yet – now, when he thinks he’s so clever, it’s time to try a new tactic.” She nearly growled in frustration at the thought of how many years, how many *centuries* Eren had slipped through their fingers, had killed his own kind in the mistaken belief that he was better than them. “We’re running out of time, so we’re not going to waste it on tactics that have proven to have failed.”

A fierce scowl overcame Reiner’s handsome features, and when Annie met it with a cool look of her own, he turned away to gaze at Bertolt. The other man seemed to shy away from the attention at first, then looked back at Reiner and shrugged. “Eren’s always had a certain blind spot when it comes to humans and his friends. It can work.” Then he glanced at Annie. “If the humans can be trusted.”

“If *Ymir* can be trusted,” Reiner growled.

“She can, because she finally has something she cares about besides her own neck,” Annie insisted as she leaned against a bare, grungy once-white wall. It served the traitor right, to be forced to bring Eren to them after all the grief she’d caused.

“It’s just….” Bertolt fidgeted with his blades as a blush spread across his face. “It’s just I worry about how Eren will think about us, after we make him join us.”

Reiner rose to his feet and rubbed his hand up and down his lover’s arm. “It’ll be okay – he was happy with us in the past, we’ll make it work once he realizes that we’re not really bad.”

“He’ll get over it, especially when he realizes that we’re leaving Mikasa and that brat of theirs alone,” Annie snapped. “It can always be worse, and if he continues to fight us, that’ll happen.” She pushed away from the wall and began to pace before it; she was so tired of this, so tired of everything revolving around Eren, so tired of needing someone who would tear out her throat if given a chance. It was all Mikasa’s fault – they’d been doing a good job of winning Eren’s trust, of making him part of their group and then something had set her off, the cold bitch. Now they were so close…. She shook her head, refusing to dwell on the words of the brat from earlier. “He’ll get over it.”

For a moment it appeared as if Bertolt was going to continue to complain, and then he backed away from the steely look that Annie shot his way. “All right then – you two need to go out on your patrol and make sure the Malform are settled for the night. I’m going to take care of any new missing person reports; let me know about any feedings that happen.” She folded her arms over her chest again as she gave out the orders.

Reiner nodded and resettled his blades. “What about the Wingers? Should we engage tonight or not? We want them to think we’re still trying for Eren, right?”

Annie debated that for a moment then shook her head. “No, let them sweat it out a little longer before we give them a nice surprise. It’ll make the Malform all the more hungrier and nastier.”

“Understood.” Reiner placed his hand on Bertolt’s back and urged him to leave the room. Annie watched them go and waited a few minutes, just in case, and used the time to send a message to Minister Zackly. Commander Dok needed to take a certain young MP to task for sticking his nose into matters where it didn’t belong….

*******


	18. Fly Away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, new chapter time. I think this is the longest chapter to date. SO MUCH STUFF is about to happen - the next few chapters should be (well, from my viewpoint) OMFG by way of plot (it's driving me crazy, I want to get the stuff out but it's like 'gah, scene will have to wait for the *next* chapter...). But the bad news is, I leave this Saturday for a work trip (gone for a week). So the next week or two might be hit or miss w/ the update schedule. If I have the next chapter done before I leave I'll post it when it's done since I'm uncertain about the internet situation.
> 
> As always, thanks so much for the kudos and comments!
> 
> Also coming up to 5000 hits. Yay! Probably should do something about that?  
> *******

*******

Levi rubbed at his sore temples while cursing Hange the entire while – what the *hell* was in that vodka of hers that had made it so damn potent? It *had* to have been mostly alcohol content! He’d barely been able to stomach a pot of tea upon waking up and the thought of eating something for breakfast… yeah, food wasn’t an option.

He was walking toward the dining room in hopes of getting some coffee to help clear his aching head when he spotted Eren ahead of him, flanked by Armin and Mikasa. It was easy to tell the brat by his unruly hair and relatively short height even when he wasn’t accompanied by the other two, and Levi found himself hurrying to catch up, deciding that there were better things to do just then that suffer through whatever the kitchen was serving or dealing with Hange and Erwin.

“Hey, Twinkie,” he called out when he was a few feet away, and inwardly smirked at the way that Eren’s narrow shoulders hunched forward at mention of the hated nickname. As Mikasa turned to glare in an even more virulent manner than usual at him, her hands rising as if to lash out, Levi hurried forward to snatch at Eren’s left wrist to pull him away. “Let’s go talk somewhere.”

“Huh? What?” Eren’s bright eyes went wide with surprise as he was hauled away from his friends; Mikasa attempted to prevent him from being snatched away but was a little too slow, while Armin yelped out loud and did what he could to hold her back. “Oh, *come on*! This early?”

“What, you have plans already?” Levi dragged the brat along, not in the mood to put up with any protests after being ignored last night. He came across the nearest supply closet and keyed it open, grateful for the override access granted to anyone at Captain-level and above. “Now get in here.”

Ignoring the foreign muttering coming from Eren, he shoved the brat into the small room and followed him inside, closing the door behind them. The room was cramped but organized, with the cleaning supplies stacked on the shelves that lined the walls.

Eren stopped once he came upon the far wall and turned around, his hands on his hips and an angry look upon his youthful face. “A supply closet? Really? This couldn’t wait until after breakfast?”

“No, it couldn’t.” Levi leaned against a shelf just about a foot in front of Eren, cutting off access to the door. “Why didn’t you show up last night?” That came out a touch more peevish that he’d have preferred.

Letting out a huff of air that had his long bangs moving in front of his mesmerizing eyes, Eren flexed his hands before folding them over his chest as if showing off his claws. “I *tried* to stop by last night, but Captain Hange caught me before I reached your quarters and dragged me off to her lab.” The right corner of his mouth twitched upward for a moment. “She was rather trashed at the time, and indicated that you were *definitely* trashed, so I went along with her. She took me back to her lab and… well, I helped her with some experiments for a couple of hours.”

Levi was going to *kill* the bitch when he ran into her later. “What the hell did she do to you?” He stepped closer and reached out to grab hold of Eren’s jaw so he could better examine the brat.

Eren hissed in displeasure and caught Levi’s hand in his. “Nothing! Well, nothing too bad.” He tugged on Levi’s wrist to get him to let go. “She gave me something to drink, took some more blood and asked a lot of personal questions. She doesn’t do boundaries very well, does she?”

That prompted a loud scoff from Levi. “She doesn’t do boundaries at all, the lunatic.” He twisted his hand in Eren’s grasp until he was doing the holding. “I hope she at least woke up with a hangover this morning.”

“Hmm, last I saw her, she was passed out with her face pressed into a keyboard.” Eren grinned even as he attempted to tug his hand free. “So what about you? She said you were pretty out of it last night?”

“I think the crazy bitch spiked the vodka with something,” Levi complained, even if he didn’t care about the headache any longer. “I don’t remember anything after lying down.” He shifted closer to Eren, enjoying the warmth that always radiated from him. Was it a vampire thing? Levi didn’t recall that tall vampire he fought being so warm, and Mikasa was a cold bitch more than just personality-wise. He frowned when Eren attempted to pull free again. “Oi, you’ve got somewhere else you need to be?”

“Other than Sasha’s probably in tears over the fact that she’s being deprived of one of her extra meals….” Eren sighed when Levi took to glowering even more. “It’s a supply closet, *Napoleon*.”

“*Captain Napoleon*,” Levi reminded the disobedient little shit as he shuffled closer, until their thighs touched together. “What’s your point?” He rested his other hand on Eren’s hip and smirked when the brat shivered ever so slightly in reaction.

“Just that, it’s a *supply* *closet*. As in, filled with cleaning supplies,” Eren protested, his voice thick with sarcasm. He closed his eyes and rested his head back against the wall, a blatant invitation to Levi if he ever saw one. “This place *reeks* of chemicals.”

“Mmm, I don’t know, I kind of like the smell of bleach.” Levi leaned forward so he could nuzzle that enticing arch of golden skin, following the caress with his tongue. Oh yes, this was much better than trying to choke down some awful breakfast.

“You… ohh… you’re weird….” Eren entangled his fingers in Levi’s hair as if to keep him from pulling away.

Giving in to the urge to leave a mark, Levi bit into the area he’d just licked the same time his hips rocked forward. Eren cried out in such an addicting manner and clutched at the back of his head, at his shoulder, and jerked his hips to meet Levi’s. “Look who’s talking,” Levi murmured as he trailed his mouth along Eren’s chin.

One thing he had to say about the brat – Eren knew when to quit with the snarking. Levi found himself kissed with an intensity that had him forgetting all about his headache – he was lost to the feel of Eren’s feverishly warm body pressing against his, Eren’s smooth tongue sliding into his mouth, Eren’s teeth nipping at his bottom lip and Eren’s hands scrambling at his belts. Eren… everything right now was the damn brat, and he wanted *more*.

The heavy sound of leather-wrapped metal hitting the floor snapped Levi back to reality, enough for him to realize that Eren had fumbled Levi’s belts off of his hips. Levi pulled away enough to find that Eren was now working on his own belts, his bottom lip caught between his teeth as he struggled with the buckles. “What are you doing?”

Eren’s brows drew together as he paused in undoing the buckle. “Uhm, what, this a first base only thing? I mean, you dragged me into a supply closet. Don’t tell me it was to play ‘twenty questions’.”

As usual, Levi didn’t have much of a clue what the hell the kid was talking about, but figured it might have something to do with sex – which was fine. “So this where I pay you back for the last time,” he asked, more than a little suspicious. Hadn’t he told the damn brat that *he* would take charge?

The sigh from Eren just then was more than a little put-upon, which didn’t help Levi’s temper any. “No, this is where we both have a bit of fun, or so I’d assumed.” Eren’s eyes became luminous in the closet’s dim light, most likely a sign of his own temper. “Are you always going to be so shitty when we make out? Because it’s *not* a turn on.”

Levi clicked his tongue at that bit of nonsense while he shoved Eren’s hands aside so he could yank the damn belt buckle free. “Right, that’s why you’re always doing your best to piss me off, *Twinkie*. So shut the fuck up.”

“Ooooh, such sexy sweet-talk, insulting me like that. Why don’t you insult my grandmother as well while you’re at it and *really* get me turned on?”

Levi looked up while he was getting rid of the damn weapons belt to find Eren staring with a bland expression at him and realized that he was being teased – when was the last time that he’d been provoked by a lover like this, where he could bitch at them and be bitched back at without worrying about pushing things too far?

He’d rather not think about such things right now. “Too much fucking talking,” he complained while he pulled off his gloves and shoved them into a back pocket.

“Now *that* I can agree with.” Eren put his enhanced speed to use to reach for Levi and pull him back in, to wrap his arms around Levi’s waist as if to ensure that he didn’t move away.

Making a rumbling sound in the back of his throat to show his displeasure over Eren’s impetuousness just then, Levi grabbed a handful of the brat’s tousled hair and yanked him into another fervent kiss. Mentally cursing over the fact that they didn’t have too much free time, he rocked his hips into Eren’s to savor the feel of friction and pressure against his hard cock and the way that Eren groaned into his mouth before fumbling with one hand to undo the brat’s pants.

Breaking off the kiss after a few frantic jerks, Eren stuttered out Levi’s name and arched his neck while he helped Levi undo the buttons and zippers of both their pants, his hands shaking and his breath coming out in gasps. His voice took on a husky, needful quality that made Levi feel smug just to hear it when he spoke Levi’s name or complained about how long things were taking; Eren didn’t seem to feel any shame in making it known just how much he wanted Levi, in either voicing his wants or the way his hands clung to Levi’s body, both greedy and almost reverent at the same time. It was almost confusing, the juxtaposition of youthful looks and experience that Eren provided, the innocent face and talented touches. It drove Levi on with a need to dominate, to press the brat more forcefully against the wall while his mouth latched on to that slim neck, just to hear the lascivious cries that poured out of Eren’s mouth while that taut body undulated against his.

A curse slipped free when Eren’s hand slid into Levi’s loosened pants and wrapped around his cock; dammit, how could the little shit be so warm all of the time? He pulled back enough to see the heavy-lidded look of amusement that Eren was giving him, golden irises appearing all the brighter because of the blown black pupils. “What, are you going to tell me that I’m doing *this* wrong?”

“No, I’m going to tell you to get on with it.” Levi slid his slid his hands around Eren’s ass to yank his hips closer, then shifted his right hand around so he could push the white pants and underwear down enough for him to gain access to the brat’s cock. He wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting, if he thought he’d be disappointed or shocked, but Eren’s turned out to be on the normal side if a bit slender, surrounded by a light dusting of hair.

“It gets better if you touch it, like this.” The sarcastic bastard illustrated his point by jerking his hand along Levi’s cock, provoking a pleased hiss from him. Dammit, but Eren’s palm was so smooth as well as warm; everyone in the Corps developed calluses after a while even with wearing gloves from the constant weapons and rappelling practice.

“Ha… ha.” Levi scowled as he returned the favor, his fingers wrapped around Eren’s hard cock – and then something occurred to him. “Wait.” He fumbled around the shelf beside him until he found a clean towel and then used his grip on Eren’s firm ass to pull the brat closer, until their cocks brushed together. Smirking at the hiss of pleasure that provoked from Eren even as he shivered at the sensation, he draped the towel over their erections.

“For fuck’s-“ Eren rested his head against Levi’s shoulder. “Would it kill you to get a little dirty?”

Levi scoffed at that even as he wrapped Eren’s hands around both of their cocks. “I don’t even put up with being sweaty, you think I’ll going to go out there with some shitty brat’s spunk on me?” He reluctantly released his hold on Eren’s delectable ass so he could thread his fingers through the tangled but silky dark brown hair and use it to force the idiot to look at him. “Shit for brains.”

“Such a romantic,” Eren murmured against his lips before twisting his hand while he pumped it along their cocks, provoking a groan from Levi. “Next time, find a supply closet with lube.”

“You’re the one who heals, asshole,” Levi taunted back, even as his hips jerked into Eren’s fist. Dammit, Eren was so warm against him, almost enough to make him feel like he was burning up. He continued to hold Eren close, their mouths hovering near each other’s; for once he was with someone who didn’t give him a damn crick in the neck from being so much taller.

Eren smiled, the expression oddly tender for all of his sarcasm and snark from earlier. He closed those eyes of his and shivered, as if lost in the sensations just then, his teeth catching on the bottom of his lip. Levi tightened his grip around Eren’s hand to see what would happen, prompting him to move faster; he already felt a tightening in his lower body, his nerves tingling from the pleasure as it grew with each touch. Their hands moved faster, their cocks growing slick with pre-come and sweat, while Levi used his hold on Eren’s hair to hold him close so he could watch his expressions. “Open your eyes.”

Eren shook his head for a moment before he obeyed, his eyes as luminous as Levi had ever seen them. “So… bossy,” he breathed out, a becoming flush on his cheeks and the dark strands falling onto his face damp with sweat. He didn’t look like a kid just then, he looked… he didn’t look quite human, but he didn’t look like a fucking kid.

Levi wanted all of him just then and surged forward to claim his mouth as his hips jolted up into Eren’s touch, so close to the edge and determined to drag what was becoming his own personal tormenter along with him. Eren clutched at his shoulder as if for support and stumbled back against the wall, panting into Levi’s mouth as he began to tremble.

Keeping their eyes locked on each other, Levi sucked on Eren’s bottom lip for a moment before letting it go, just in time to hear Eren cry out his name. Those golden eyes flashed even brighter as Eren shuddered against him, his cock twitching as he came, and Levi thought he felt pricks of pain against his shoulder for a moment. The brat’s hand paused for a moment, then resumed stroking along Levi’s with a shakiness that could be felt.

Not that Levi needed much more to finish him off at that point – the feel of Eren shuddering against him and hearing his name cried out in passion added to the ecstasy already tearing through him, and when Eren leaned in to nuzzle near his right ear…. He bit into his bottom lip as he came, conditioned to remain quiet, to give little away, even as his fingers continued to clutch at the brat’s hair….

He fought to breathe evenly as the aftershocks of bliss twitched at his nerves, his body feeling languid after his release. Eren remained still, almost inhumanely so, and after a minute Levi shifted back, his fingers almost sore when he forced them to let go.

Eren’s face was blank at first, and then he managed a weak grin. “Not sure if you’re still ‘spunk-free’ or not.” He moved his hand so he could grasp the now stained cloth and used it to wipe himself clean.

Levi clicked his tongue while he snagged another cloth to tend to himself and took a step back, almost shivering from the lack of Eren’s body heat. “If I’ve got any one me, you’re doing my laundry – you’ve already ruined enough of my uniforms.”

“What, do I look like your personal maid?” Eren tossed the dirty towel aside and scowled while he made himself presentable – well, as presentable as he could be, considering his hair was even more fucked up than usual and he still appeared flushed.

For a response, Levi gave him a particularly pleased smirk.

“Oh, fuck you.”

He reached out to grab onto Eren’s ass and gave it a proper squeeze, prompting a cry from the uppity brat. “That’ll be later,” Levi informed him, his body once more flush with Eren’s as his lips brushed against that sensitive neck. “You’ll come to my room once I’m done with the patrol tonight and I *will* fuck you.” He’d gut Hange if she got in his way this time.

Eren did that alluring little shiver of his and then shoved Levi away, his eyes glittering as if filled with tears. “No.”

Startled first with being pushed aside and then with being denied, Levi wasn’t in the mood to put with this shit. “What the *hell*?”

“No.” Eren sniffed, actually *sniffed*.

Was the brat crying? Levi halted in the process of grabbing hold of his shirt and shaking the stupid out of him to try to figure out what the hell was going on here. “What-“

“No sex without a date first,” Eren told him, those huge eyes still shimmering as if ready to burst forth with tears at any moment. “I need to be wined and dined before I put out.”

-the hell…. Levi stared in… he didn’t *know* what the fuck he was thinking just then, until his brain kicked back into gear. “*Fuck* *no*,” he shouted while he did grab hold of the bastard’s shoulders and used that to shove Eren back against the wall. “You really expect me to buy this ‘date’ shit? Like you, the guy who *fucked two vampires at the same time*, really need that shit?”

A look of annoyance flashed over Eren’s face. “I keep telling you, that was a one time thing!” He sighed as he swatted at Levi’s hands. “And I have too gone on dates… uhm… hmm.” He stopped resisting as he seemed to think it over. “There was that obnoxiously sweet kid in Berlin… and that rich guy in Stockholm… the one minister in Arven? That might have been a date, technically… so about… five times?” He gave Levi a nervous grin, all sign of the false tears now gone. “Maybe I’m not really a date guy.”

Five dates. Over a millennium old, and five fucking dates. Fuck – Levi was *terrible* at this relationship shit and he’d gone on more than that, mostly because of Hange sticking her damn nose where it wasn’t wanted and setting him up whenever she felt he was being ‘too much of an anti-social psychopath with pent-up sexual needs’. “Yeah, no date. Your twink ass, my quarters, we’ll fuck there. Consider yourself lucky if you get any tea after pulling that shit.”

Eren rolled his eyes and folded his arms over his chest. “Always with the sweet-talking. Ever think you’d get farther with me if you weren’t such an asshole?”

“Didn’t know I needed it with you.” Wasn’t the point of all of this that the damn brat was a sure thing? He shook his head and reached down for his weapons.

There was a flash of gold as Eren made a deep growling noise. “It’s easier to get *in* my ass if you’re not pissing me off!” He bared a mouthful of too many sharp teeth and before Levi could move – could *think* - captured Levi’s mouth.

The first thing he *did* think was ‘fuck, there goes my tongue’, but there wasn’t any pain, just Eren’s tongue as it stroked along the roof of his mouth and then the kiss gentled, Eren’s hands coming to rest against his chest. Levi did some growling of his own as he gave the brat’s ass another squeeze, equally pissed off and turned on just then; it was so easy to forget how deadly Eren could be, to take him at that too young face value, and to know that just a few minutes ago he’d had the ‘kid’ broken down….

Uncaring that they really had somewhere else to be just then, Levi pulled Eren closer, reveling in the feel of him, the warmth soaking into his body even as that sense of pleasure and want stirred back to life. He deepened the kiss, chased after Eren’s tongue and… and almost jumped back when he realized that his mouth was flooded with blood. Before he could spit it out, Eren pressed a hand over his mouth, his eyes huge and luminous once more.

“No, it’s fine! Just swallow!”

Figuring it was the easiest thing to do so he could yell at the bastard, Levi did just that, and wiped at his lips as soon as Eren removed his hand. “What the hell?” He didn’t feel any pain and there wasn’t any new blood, now that he’d- He glared at a too innocent Eren. “Do *not* tell me I just drank more of your blood, you shitty brat!”

“Why? I swallowed the other day, seems to me it’s only fair.” Eren shrugged as he took to leaning back against the wall. “Look, it’s been a while since you last had any of my blood, so I figured that you could use a refresh.” He motioned to Levi’s left leg. “If I can’t be out there with you on patrol tonight, at least let me do this much for you. If you get wounded, it’ll help you heal and slow down any Malform infection.”

Levi ran his hands through his hair and wondered if he could get Erwin to assign him somewhere without any people for a year or two. “So you force-feed me more blood.”

“Oh, stop being such a drama queen. It was just a little bit, and there’s no negative effects,” Eren scoffed. “It should work even better this time since you’ve already had some in your system, but that’s it.” He seemed to be annoyed with Levi’s ungratefulness… but Levi noticed the way that his claws kept flexing and unflexing, a sure sign that he was upset.

So the brat had done something without asking, he supposed that he should look at the intentions behind it and leave it at that. He’d benefited from the fast healing before and could use any possible advantage against those undead vampires at this point, even if he felt a bit guilty that he was the only one ‘gifted’ with it – well, him, Armin and Krista. “Next time, *ask*. I don’t like surprises.”

Eren’s hands stilled and he smiled; with his disheveled hair falling into his golden eyes and the tension gone from his wiry body, he looked like so much fucking jailbait that Levi felt as if he should be ashamed of himself just then. Fuck, what the pedos wouldn’t have done to have gotten their hands on this brat back at Tartarus – and probably lost those shitty hands if not more, between Eren and his sister.

“Come on, the squad’s probably waiting for us.” He blamed the thickness in his voice just then due to the fact that he just drank vampire-hybrid blood.

“Yes, Sir.” Eren executed a perfect salute as he pushed himself away from the wall. They paused to put back on their weapons belt and then they were ready to go.

They received a few odd looks when they left the supply closet, but all it took was for Levi to stare down the curious shitstains for them to realize that they had much better things to do.

After a couple of minutes out in the hallways, Eren spoke up. “So, you were kidding about the whole tea thing, right? You really wouldn’t refuse me a cup, would you?”

A piss-poor practical joke and then a mouthful of blood on top of it? The brat was lucky that his head wasn’t caved in from being kicked so hard. “You’re shitting me, right?” In fact, he reached over to smack the back of the idiot’s head.

“Aw, come on!” Eren pouted as he rubbed his head. “At least give me a chance to make it up to you.”

Levi was about to say ‘hell no’, but the salacious grin on Eren’s face just then prevented him from speaking. He frowned as he considered the offer, the expression smoothing out as he remembered the blow-job. This had some possibilities…. “Maybe.”

Judging from the smirk on Eren’s face, the damn brat knew that ‘maybe’ meant ‘fuck yeah, let’s see what you can do’. Damn, tonight’s patrol was going to be *hell* to get through.

*******

Eren caught Mikasa as she was headed back to the common room. “Have a good workout?”

She smiled at him and fussed with her scarf. “Yes I-“ The smile faded as she took a deep breath. “Why do you-“

He held up his hand and switched to German, figuring that it was better to be caught speaking in some weird language than anyone overhearing what they were about to say; there were still some people who retained a few ‘native’ languages here or there, long bastardized over the years so it wouldn’t seem that odd. “It was an interesting… ‘breakfast’,” he admitted with a shrug.

Her eyes flashed gold for a moment, but it seemed to be the only loss of control. “You’re seriously putting up with someone who’s *insulting* you? Isn’t there someone better you can find if you want a fuckbuddy?”

One thing he had to say for his sister, she certainly cut to the chase. Eren rubbed the back of his neck and sighed over her directness. “Look, we talked about this last night-“

“Yes, and I get that we insulted him. The thing started out as a joke because he was a rude asshole in the first place, and he’s not getting any better.” Her eyes flashed again and she reached out to grab onto Eren’s left arm. “Does he get how people used to call you it all the time? How they’d look at you and me, the ‘twink’ and the ‘chink’?” Bitterness colored her voice. “People used those names to hurt us, to avoid seeing us as human.”

Of course Mikasa would remember the hurt better than he did; Eren never held on to the pain so much when it was directed at him, not when the pain of his loved ones was so much more potent. “I didn’t… I really didn’t make him understand.” He stopped in the hallway so he could reach out and grasp at her hands, to hold hem between his own. “I figured I’d give him a few days to let him cool off and then I’d set him straight. When both of us are angry… it gets messy and violent.”

She stared at him for a few seconds and then nodded, more than familiar with his temper. “I just think that if he cares about you, if he’s *worthy* of you, he wouldn’t call you that.” She somehow turned their hands about until she was holding his. “He’d be treating you a lot better.”

And there was his sister, in all of her amazing glory. Eren smiled up at her, full of love and pride. “You don’t think anyone is good enough for me.”

She smiled back, a faint hint of pink on her pale cheeks. “That’s because no one is,” she whispered.

“So what makes you think that some horse-faced MP is worthy of you, when you’re a million times better than me,” he asked, just as quietly.

The blush strengthened and Mikasa ducked her head. “Jean’s not that bad.”

Oh, *Jean*. Eren bit back a teasing remark that his sister seemed to have fallen for the idiot and sighed again. “You’re a better judge of people than I am,” was what he said instead and resumed walking. Knowing that he was making his sister uncomfortable and not wanting to fight about Levi, he changed the subject. “Have you seen Armin?”

“Not since breakfast.” She frowned, the blush fading from her cheeks. “He was very quiet then, and ate quickly.”

“Yeah, I noticed that he was busy most of yesterday.” They shared a worried look. “I’ll track him down after I wash off.”

“Thank you, that’ll make me feel better since I have to leave once I get ready.” Mikasa fussed again with her scarf.

So he wasn’t the only one who had noticed their friend’s odd behavior. Eren ran a hand through his hair and wondered what was going on with Armin. Had he found out something with the research? Come up with another crazy scheme?

They were quiet the rest of the way back to the common room, where Eren wished his sister a nice afternoon out with Sasha and her ‘date’. He headed to his bunk to gather some clean clothes for his shower when she called out his name. “Yeah?”

Mikasa’s eyes flashed gold for a quick second. “I still haven’t forgotten about my talk with Captain Ackerman.”

Well, shit. Eren went off to his shower wondering just how the hell he was going to dispose of a body while stuck on the base, comforted by the fact that at least Levi wasn’t too big….

*******

Something was wrong. Krista wasn’t sure what exactly, if it was this place or the threat of the vampires finding them, but something was wrong; Ymir was usually in a good mood after a special training session with Captain Hange and her private squad, yet here she was – quiet, almost sullen to the point of introspective as they headed to the showers. Krista had finished her training with Sasha, Mina and the other new recruits almost half an hour ago and been waiting for her girlfriend, and not even the sight of her standing in the hallway had done more than prompt a weary grin from the older woman.

She reached out to rest her hand on Ymir’s left arm. “What is it? What’s bothering you?”

The question seemed to startle Ymir from her thoughts, her left hand jolting away from the pouch it had settled upon. “What?” She gazed intently down on Krista for several second and sighed before switching to the dialect she’d taught her over the years. “It’s nothing, darling. I’m just… it’s not easy, teaching people useless crap that’s just going to get them killed.”

One of the things that Krista loved about her girlfriend was how Ymir was so honest with her, how she never danced around the issue or tried to sugarcoat things. Most people considered Ymir as being too blunt or purposely hurtful, but Ymir didn’t see the point of wasting time by masking things when the truth would just come out at the end. Were there times when being a bit more… diplomatic would help? Sure, and that’s when Ymir said Krista was there to balance things out, that they made a great team. Yet as much as Krista loved that trait, right now there had already been enough death, so it stung a bit to hear how little faith Ymir had in their new friends. “Do you really think it’s that hopeless? I thought Captains Ackerman and Hange were really good at fighting.”

Ymir seemed to consider that for a moment, her left arm snaking around Krista’s waist as they continued on their way. “All of the captains are really good – for humans. That Hange is just *nuts*, so that’ll give her an edge in a fight, while Ackerman is the best I’ve seen in… well, he might be the best I’ve seen.”

Krista slowed down and pulled her girlfriend over to a quiet corner of the hallway. “And that’s good, right?” It wasn’t often that Ymir handed out praise like that.

“That’s two people out of what, over a hundred?” Ymir grimaced to show what she thought of those numbers. “Three when you count the weird sniffing guy. There’s a reason why there’s so few captains in each of the Corps – most don’t live long enough to get that good or are talented enough in the first place. The trio are going to tear through them.”

“Then why bother training them?”

Ymir open and closed her mouth a few times while her arm tightened around Krista’s waist. After a minute, she sighed and shook her head, a look of extreme weariness settling over her sharp features. “Because it’s better than doing nothing. Because at least they’ll go down fighting. Because it’ll make Eren happy, and right now I need him happy so he’ll turn you.” She sounded as bleak as she looked.

For someone so independent, Krista was stunned to learn that Ymir was putting out so much effort for people she usually cared so little for - with the possible except of Eren. “But… is it so important, us coming here? We were doing fine on our own.” If her lover was so unhappy, they could just leave.

A tender smile broke through the weariness and softened Ymir’s features. “Yes, it is.” She pulled Krista closer. “Once you’re like me – once you’re *better* than me, nothing can stop us.”

“I don’t see why it’s so important that I have to become like you.” Why was Ymir pushing the matter so much? Yes, Krista agreed to be turned because she would do anything to spend however long she could with Ymir, but if it was making her lover this miserable….

The hold on her waist became uncomfortably tight. “Because once Eren turns you, *very little* will be able to touch you,” Ymir hissed, a flash of red sparking in her dark eyes. “How do you think I’ve survived this long? Even with me sharing my blood, you’re still too fragile.” She pulled Krista even closer and bowed her head until their foreheads touched. “I won’t risk losing you like that – it doesn’t matter if you’re out there somewhere in the world, as long as you survive.”

Krista didn’t like the dark tone that this conversation had taken, or the desperate edge in Ymir’s voice. She was used to Ymir mocking her and the rest of the world, in pushing her to her limits and forcing her to realize the strengths buried deep inside, not this… this frightening sense of surrender. “Hey,” she chided as she reached up to gently cup Ymir’s face between her hands. “It won’t come to that – us being apart.” She smiled with as much conviction that she could muster. “We’ll figure out what it takes to make Eren turn me and then we’ll be inseparable. We promised, didn’t we? That you would teach me how to survive and that I would fight for you in return.” Her lover had taken a chance on her all those years ago and she wouldn’t let her down; it was just the two of them as no one had ever understood her as much as Ymir had.

Ymir was perfectly still for several nerve-wracking seconds and then she let out a slow breath. “Of course, princess.” She managed a lopsided smile and lifted a trembling hand to comb through Krista’s hair. “Who am I to argue with you once you make up your mind?”

Krista choked on a weak laugh as she smacked Ymir in the ribs, the blow half-hearted at best. “You do realize that once I’m turned, I can beat some proper manners into you?”

Ymir’s smile took on a wicked edge. “Oh, darling, I am *so* looking forward to that.” Her hand slipped down to fondle Krista’s ass. “*So* looking forward to it.”

Remembering in time that they were still out in ‘public’, Krista bit back on a shriek over the fondling and smacked Ymir again, which only encouraged the degenerate. “Incorrigible,” she hissed while struggling not to smile, her hands smacking Ymir’s aside while she stepped back.

“It’s why you love me,” Ymir announced, slipping back into the current dialect as she straightened up. “To make it up to you, I’ll even wash your back in the shower.”

“You just adore traumatizing everyone, don’t you?” Still, Krista didn’t turn down the offer. She held out her hand and waited until her lover accepted it before they continued on their way.

Ymir appeared happy once more, a knowing grin on her face and an evil sparkle in her eyes, yet Krista still felt that something was *off*. Why couldn’t she shake the feeling? Clutching tighter at Ymir’s hand, she resolved to do her best to figure it out.

*******

Jean was nervous as he presented Mikasa with the flowers that he had bought earlier in the day, mindful of how Connie was off to the side giving an excited Sasha a box of chocolates. While Sasha let out a loud cry and snatched at the box, Mikasa gave Jean a shy smile and accepted the flowers with a blush. It wasn’t quite the same reaction, but it was endearing all the same.

“Thank you.” Her voice was quiet yet she looked up at him through her lowered lashes, her lower face hidden beneath the familiar red scarf. “They’re very pretty.”

“Ah, the seller recommended the white roses.” He rubbed at the back of his head in nervousness. “I really don’t know much about flowers.”

The corners of her mouth peeked out of the edges of her scarf. “So that’s wine *and* flowers, eh?”

He laughed a little at the comment. “Yeah, I suppose!”

Mikasa raised the flowers to her face and gave them a quick sniff. “Thank you,” she repeated again. “So, do we want to go into the restaurant?” She motioned to the small restaurant that they were standing in front of, another place he’d never heard of before he’d met her. She seemed to like to avoid the popular fancy places, which was a departure from the other girls he’d dated, yet if this was anything like the café she’d picked before, it should be good. “Obviously you didn’t have a problem getting the time off?”

Connie picked up on that, having finished catching up with Sasha. “Yeah, funning thing about that – it seems that Jean and I aren’t stuck on double shifts anymore!” He waited until the hostess at the door led them to their table to continue. “Guess it’s Marlo’s turn to be on Commander Dok’s shitlist right now – I feel really bad for Boris.”

At Mikasa and Sasha’s confused looks, Jean let out a nervous laugh while he sat down at their table. “Boris is Marlo’s partner – Marlo’s been stirring up trouble in the MP by accusing other people of not doing their job properly, so Commander Dok came down on him rather hard. Since Connie and I have been working our asses off lately, I guess he decided that we deserved a second chance and gave Marlo and Boris our added shifts for the foreseeable future.” He didn’t go on to say that they’d gotten stuck with those punishment shifts because of the attitude he’d displayed while at the Freedom Corps’ headquarters, or how grateful he was as it allowed him the time to spend with Mikasa.

Sasha set her precious box of chocolates aside – barely out of reach – and groaned. “Oh you guys are *so coddled*. I’d rather put up with extra shifts than go through ‘special’ training with one of Captain Ackerman’s private squad!” She shuddered in horror as if to prove her point, and then straightened up as the server came around for their drink order.

Once again Mikasa took over to name a bottle of wine, and the server promised to be back soon with it and to take their appetizer order. Connie and Sasha huddled together with a menu, leaving Jean with the impression that it wasn’t even worth his while to look at the menu. Judging from Mikasa’s amused smile when she glanced at her friend, she was probably thinking the same thing. “Wanna take bets that they’ll growl if we tell them that there’s no snacks before the main course,” he whispered to her.

“Please, I’ve heard nothing for the past two days but how great this meal will be – I don’t know what she’s more excited about, seeing Connie or eating out.” There was a bewitching sparkle to Mikasa’s dark eyes that left Jean unable to speak for a few seconds. How did she manage to convey so much emotion with so little expression?

“Uhm, yeah, he’ll be pleased to hear that. I think.” He paused to take a sip of water. “And you?” Please let her be happy about today’s date.

That damn red scarf was looped around her shoulders today, matching the grey tunic and black leggings that she wore, so the small but pleased smile that turned up the corners of her mouth was plain to see. “Well, it was another intensive training day so I’m definitely not here for the food.”

It took him a few seconds to figure out what she meant by that, and by then the server was back with their wine. He grinned while the girl poured the drink into their glasses, and then stared in astonishment as Sasha excitedly rattled off several appetizers from the menu.

“Oh come on, are you even going to have room left for something to eat after that?”

Mikasa leaned over to pat his hand while Sasha and Connie took to frowning at him. “Trust me, Sasha has a… very energetic appetite. She makes up for me.” She leaned back in her chair and sipped at the wine.

“Yeah, relax for once,” Connie chided him. “You’re not paying.”

“Yes, but Mikasa is, and it’s not even really dinner.” Jean felt bad for the girl picking up the tab for the four of them – what would his mother say about this?

She shrugged as she set the glass down. “Don’t worry about it – I don’t go out too much and I really felt bad about us leaving that last time.” She did another of her half smiles and leaned toward him. “Let’s just enjoy the time we have together, yes?” There was an emphasis to her words, as if she felt strongly about what she was saying.

Sasha nodded, her ponytail swishing about from the force of the movement. “Exactly – who knows if we’ll have another chance like this? I don’t want today to be interrupted like last time.” Her hand crept across the table to grasp Connie’s. Jean’s friend practically beamed as his fingers entwined with hers.

Great, so he was coming across as the asshole for trying to be the sensible one. Yet when Jean frowned, Mikasa gave him another of her half smiles and reached over to tap his untouched wineglass. “You’re thinking too much. Trust me, just relax and enjoy the moment.”

“Who am I to argue with such good advice?” He grinned before he raised his glass for a sip. “So how do you know so much about wine? Were your parents’ experts or something?”

There was another of those dark flashes across her face. “Not exactly.” She paused to take a sip of her own and then picked up the menu. “Like much in life, it’s based on trial and error.”

She didn’t really look as if she should be old enough to have tried that much alcohol – that she should be drinking it at all, really, but if she was in the Freedom Corps then Jean wasn’t going to argue – but he had the feeling that this wasn’t something he should press just then. “So, anything in particular that you think is good here,” he asked as he picked up the menu.

“Their stews are really good.” Mikasa ducked her head as she held up the menu. “They remind me a bit of the ones that Eren makes.”

“Eren?” Jean frowned for a moment. “Oh, your brother.” He thought about that for a few seconds. “The kid cooks?”

“He’s not a kid.” She lowered the menu to glare at him. “And yes, he cooks.” She cocked her head to the side. “Do you?”

“Uhm… well, you see….” Fortunately, he was spared from saying anything else since the server returned with their appetizer orders. After she dropped off the dishes, she took their entrée orders. Jean wasn’t surprised when Mikasa ordered something light again.

When the poor server moved on to take the gluttons’ orders, Mikasa set her menu aside and leaned over the table as if to be closer to Jean. “So, tell me about your fellow MPs.”

The change in topic threw him a little, but he supposed that she still didn’t want to talk about her brother; at least she seemed interested in hearing more about him and what was happening in his life. Picking up his wineglass, he leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table and smiled. “Well, I don’t know if they seem as crazy in the Corps as they do in the MP, but….”

*******

“I’m heading inside to drop off the documents.” Boris frowned at Marlo for a few seconds before he grunted softly and turned to go up the stone steps leading to Minister Zackly’s office.

His partner hadn’t said anything about ‘behaving’ himself, but Marlo could read between the lines; Boris was a decent guy, he didn’t pick on him as much as the others did for being a ‘bleeding heart’ or a ‘foolish dreamer’ for believing that the MPs should work harder at helping the people of Trost – Hitch and Amir certainly called him a hell of a lot worse things.

And now the poor guy was stuck on double-duty with Marlo; it hadn’t been spelled out explicitly, but everyone was blaming *him* for them being saddled with the extra shifts. Commander Dok hadn’t looked away from Marlo the entire time he’d informed them that they would be reporting for extra duty for the foreseeable future.

At least Jean and Connie had been happy about the situation, since it meant that they were off Commander Dok’s shit list for the time being. Marlo leaned against a stone pillar and tried not to think about the extra work, about how wrong it was that he was being punished for simply questioning fellow MPs…. He clutched as his elbows as he struggled to control his emotions; it wouldn’t do him any good to get upset right now, especially outside of a minister’s office.

He watched the people walking back and forth in front of him as a distraction, and noticed a familiar face creeping toward the fancy building. Bennie? No, Beatrice, wasn’t it? Beatrice… Thaler, if he remembered correctly. She’d been among the families that approached him about their missing loved ones.

“Ma’am?”

The middle-aged woman took a few hesitant steps toward him. “You’re the MP I talked to about my daughter, yes?” When he nodded, she took a few more steps. “Did you find her?”

Marlo gave her a nervous smile; the last thing he wanted was Boris to come out just then, or one of the minister’s own men. “No, ma’am, I’m sorry.”

Her pale, worry-lined face crumpled at the news. “No? But-“

As bad as he felt over being concerned about himself, he felt even worse at breaking the bad news to her. “Look.” He stepped closer so he speak in a lower town. “I’m not sure I can find out anything for you.” When she appeared ready to start crying, he reached out to pat her left arm as a desperate thought coming to mind – anything to get her away from here, to get her a chance of real help. “But… but you should go to the Engineers.”

That seemed to startle her and cause her to blink back the tears. “The… the Engineers?”

“Yes.” He glanced behind him to make sure that Boris was still inside. “Go talk to Commander Pixis, I hear he’s a good man. He should be able to look into your daughter’s disappearance.”

The woman stood there for a few seconds before nodding and quietly leaving, her hands wrapped around her waist as if she needed to physically hold herself together. Marlo watched her leave and hoped that he’d done something right; he’d heard a lot of things about Commander Pixis – that the man was an alcoholic, that he had a ‘thing’ for good-looking adjuncts and so forth, but never that he didn’t take his job seriously. The Engineers always did a good job of keeping the domes in working order, and Pixis was considered one of their best commanders. He shouldn’t ignore someone’s request to look into their missing child.

Or at least Marlo hoped that he wouldn’t. Resuming his post by the steps, he hooked his thumbs into his belts and tried not to think about what needed to be done if more people kept coming to the MP with requests about missing loved ones that his fellow squadmates insisted didn’t exist….

*******

Armin reversed the slides again and attempted to figure out the difference; what the hell had the captain been doing here last night? He wish Captain Ackerman hadn’t dragged Eren off so quickly this morning before he’d gotten a better explanation out of his friend, or that Captain Hange had been a bit more understandable in-between the gulps of coffee as she’d mumbled out a hasty greeting then orders for the day before going off to practice with Ymir. Oh well, it wasn’t as if he had better things to do….

“You know, I was always told that my face would freeze like that if-“

“Fuck!” Armin nearly jumped off of the stool then whirled around to find his friend standing a couple of feet away, dressed in white pants and a grey jersey that was loosely tied at the collar. “Are you trying to give me a heart-attack!”

“Uhm, no?” Eren cocked his head to the side while he tucked back his towel-dried, tousled hair; he really hated hair dryers, hated the noise they made because of his hearing so refused to use them, which contributed to his constant state of bedhead. Armin found it yet another endearing trait of his friend even though he itched to get a comb just then to deal with all the tangles and knots. “Seems like a good waste of effort on my part, after raising you.”

Armin scoffed at that bit of nonsense and leaned back against the workstation. “Oh please, I largely survived because of Mikasa, I’ll have you know.” He grinned when Eren took to scowling at him. “Yeah, you did all the cooking, but your idea of watching over me was ‘eh, let’s tie a string around his foot to keep him in place while I go off hunting.”

A faint blush tinted Eren’s tan cheeks. “Come on it was o- okay, three times.” His dark hair swung forward as he hung his head. “Like I had any idea of what to do with a kid.”

That was true – Armin got the impression that Eren hadn’t been around other children much in his very long life, which was odd – Armin could remember the other children in his apartment complex, the times he went out to play with them while his grandfather talked to the neighbors…. The memories were faint, but they were there. The little he heard Eren and Mikasa talk about their childhood, it was only about *them*. Well, no, Mikasa seemed to have a couple of friends… so why had Eren been isolated? Did it have something to do with the serum?

“You having fun hiding in here?”

Eren’s question jolted Armin from his thoughts. “Eh?” He blinked a few times and looked up at his friend. “Oh, yeah, I supposed.” He twisted on the stool to motion at the blood samples. “I’m trying to figure out what Captain Hange intended with these samples.” Twisting back to face Eren, he gave his friend a displeased frown. “What were the two of you doing last night?”

Eren hopped up onto the workstation behind him and tugged at his bangs. “That woman is insane.” Since the statement was a known fact, Armin didn’t say anything and let his friend continue. “She tried to get me drunk and kept taking blood samples ‘to track the effect of alcohol on a vampire-hybrid’ or something like that – I think she just likes poking people with needles, to be honest – and then asked me a bunch of rather personal questions.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right for her.” Armin figured he could give up on comparing the samples, since he knew from experience that the siblings had a rather impressive tolerance for alcohol. “So what did she ask you?” *That* had to have been fun, judging from the previous ‘interviews’. He knew he was right when Eren grabbed his hair with both hands and groaned, his booted heels kicking back and forth at the sides of the workstation.

“Fucking hell, what *didn’t* she ask?” Eren gave his hair a hard enough tug that it had to have hurt. “She wanted to know if I was ‘cut’ or not, and damn near pulled down my pants to check it out herself.” Armin didn’t know exactly what that meant, but assumed it had to have something to do with – yeah, okay, where did the woman find this stuff out? “She wanted to know if I could suppress my gag reflex or not, as if *that* has anything to do with nearly being turned into a vampire, if I thought Levi was getting too much iron in his diet-“

Armin couldn’t help it, he started laughing just then, both by how ridiculous the questions were and by the blatant indignation on poor Eren’s face. “How did you manage to get through it?”

A small smile curling at his lips, Eren gave up on torturing his hair and shook his head. “The vodka helped a lot. Let’s just say I was really, *really* thankful when she passed out.” He smiled a little more, yet the expression was more sad than amused. “Yet… I don’t know, in a way it was interesting. She’s so full of excitement and curiosity that it’s kind of difficult to say ‘no’ even when she’s at her craziest. At least I know I can walk away at any time – it’s more of a choice than Grisha ever gave me.”

And just like that, Armin felt some of his good mood disappear as well. “Yeah.” He began to fidget, to stare at his hands in his lap as they twisted about with each other. “Yeah, they do have different styles.”

There was a quiet sigh followed by a soft ‘thud’, and moments later Eren reached out to touch Armin gently on the top of his head. “Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” He paused for a moment. “You don’t usually hide in here all day.”

“I’m not hiding.” Armin continued to stare down at his hands.

There was another pause, and then Eren began to stroke along Armin’s hair, just like he used to do when Armin had been a child. “Look, I know I’ve been spending a lot of time with Le-Captain Ackerman, but I still notice what’s going on with you and Mikasa. You spent most of yesterday here in the lab and I get the impression that if I didn’t come by now, that you’d be here through dinner today. What’s going on?”

Armin shrugged even as he leaned into the comforting touch. “Well, I just figured that since Mikasa’s out on her date that you’d want to be Captain Ackerman today, too. It’s not a big deal – there’s so much for me to do-“ He winced when Eren gave a strand of his hair a not so gentle tug. “Hey, I’m not you, you know,” he joked in a weak voice.

“It’s difficult to tell, the way you’re acting now.” Eren shifted around so he could settle on his knees in front of Armin, his arms resting on Armin’s lap so he could stare up at him with those huge, golden eyes. Dammit, the manipulative bastard was pulling out the big weapons, wasn’t he? “So what’s going on? Why are you hiding here? Is it because of me and Mikasa? I thought you wanted me to ‘grow up emotionally’ and you think it’s good for Mikasa to interact with humans more, too.”

For a moment, Armin really wanted to just go along with things, to say that he was feeling jealous and insecure; after all, he’d had so much of the siblings’ attention for most of his life, had enjoyed it when it had been just the three of them. Yet he knew that Eren wasn’t the naive waif he appeared to most of the world, and he definitely knew that Mikasa would suspect something once she got back and talked to Eren. So he sighed and reached out to tuck aside an unruly lock that had fallen across Eren’s nose and smiled when his beloved friend tilted his face into the touch for a second.

Might as well get this over with while Eren was in such a good mood…. “I went out and talked to Annie yesterday*.”

Eren stared up at him for a few seconds, the only telling sign that the words had sunk in was the intense gleam in his golden eyes. “Annie. Huh. And *you’re* the smart one?” His fangs flashed as he spoke.

Armin shook his head, his right hand pressing against Eren’s shoulder to keep him from moving. “Look, I made sure people were around so she couldn’t try anything, all right!” He spoke in a rush, to prevent Eren from… from… he didn’t know, screaming or snarling or something. “And she didn’t! She didn’t do anything!”

“Somehow I doubt it was ‘nothing’ since you’re hiding in here.” It was almost worse when Eren remained kneeling, his voice mostly calm except for the slight lisp from his fangs and his eyes burning so brightly. Most people thought that he wasn’t that smart, that he couldn’t think things through, but he was *damn* perceptive. “So what did the… lovely young woman have to say?” He flexed his claws as he spoke.

Yeah, Eren was *pissed off*.

Armin winced and rested his hands on top of his friend’s smaller ones. “Honestly, I did what I thought was best.” He met Eren’s gaze and held it; one of the things he’d always loved about his friend was that Eren had faith in him – he may be a lot older, but Eren had never lorded that over Armin, had never made Armin feel insignificant for his youth and inexperience. “I just… I thought there was a chance to maybe convince her and the other two to back off.”

“Armin.” Eren spoke his name in a weary sigh and closed his eyes. “You’re such an idealist – first thinking that there’s a chance of anything happening with Levi and me, and now this.” He shook his head, his hair flying about and becoming even more tangled. “Annie’s not going to give up – she’s like… like a hungry cat stalking a wounded bird. I don’t think she’s going to give up now that she’s ready to pounce.” He opened his eyes and blinked slowly. “What did she say to you? It had to be something bad for her to get you so upset. Was it what they’d do to you?” He bared his fangs for a moment.

“No, it wasn’t that.” Armin reached out to tug on a particularly recalcitrant flyaway. “It’s just… she said that it’s because of me that they tracked you guys down this time,” he admitted in a quiet voice.

“Oh, that.” Eren closed his eyes again and rested his head on Armin’s lap, sounding bored with the topic. “Maybe she is mellowing with age or something.”

Feeling… well, feeling gobsmacked of all things, Armin stared down at his friend for several seconds before he smacked him on top of his head. “Is that all you have to say?” He thought Eren would be upset with him, or mad at Annie… or… dammit, *something* other than bored and sleepy! *He’d* lost sleep over this!

“Ow!” Eren frowned as he rocked back on his heels and rubbed at his head. “You’re as bad as Levi!” He muttered under his breath for a moment and snapped his teeth. “What was that for?”

“For being an idiot! How can you be so calm about this?”

“Because they’re always finding us,” Eren shouted back. “They always do! They hack our devices or ID’s or torture the people we know or track us while we feed, or just stumble across us by dumb fucking luck!” He let out an explosive breath and gave Armin an almost pitying look. “Did we think that they might link you to us? Yeah. Did we worry about it? No, other than to make sure you were kept safe.” He reached out to Armin with a trembling hand. “You’re our family, Trouble, and worth every bit you ever caused us.”

The use of his old nickname made the back of Armin’s throat prickle and tears well up in his eyes; he sniffed as he wiped at his nose. “Oh, I know things are dire when you call me that – you stopped because you said it was like summoning bad luck.”

Eren grinned, his smile a bit too sharp because of the fangs yet his eyes possessing a soft glow. “Well, you did seem awfully determined to live up to it, you damn brat.” Then he grimaced and ran his hands through his hair. “Fuck, I’m sounding like that short bastard now.” He grimaced again before his expression became serious. “If it’s one thing Mikasa and I have learned, you can’t live your life obsessing about all the bad things that’ll happen; yeah, we try to avoid what we know are going to hurt, but if we did everything we could to avoid those assholes, we’d be living in a cave in the middle of nowhere our whole lives – and they’d still find us in the end. They have the time, patience, experience and resources to do just that.” His eyes flashed a molten gold for a few seconds. "So don’t let her get to you, okay? It’s not your fault. No more than the fact that Mikasa and I tend to favor certain domes and are always looking after Grisha’s research, or have set hunting patterns.”

Armin still felt a kernel of guilt inside of his chest – maybe the siblings wouldn’t have been trapped just yet if it wasn’t for him, maybe they’d be out in the wild for a few more decades or on another continent – but Eren’s whole demeanor was much too earnest for him not to take the words somewhat to heart. “I never wanted to be a burden to you two,” he whispered, his arms wrapped around his chest as if to hold in all the guilt and pain he felt.

Eren made a scoffing sound and shook his head. “Sure, *now* you say that, years after we had to drag you all over Eastern Europe and clean your dirty ass.” When Armin straightened up in outrage, hurt that his friend wasn’t taking him seriously, Eren smiled, the expression tender and loving, and leaned over to hug him. “You never were a burden, even when you were a squalling brat.”

That image prompted a half-sob from him as he hugged Eren back. “You really have been spending too much time with Captain Ackerman.”

“And whose brilliant idea was it, hmm?” Eren hugged him back tightly before urging him to sit up straight. “’It’ll be good for you!’,” he mimicked in a high pitched voice.

“Oh please, I don’t sound like that,” Armin chided as he pushed his friend away at arm’s length. “And I said-“ he paused as his stomach growled, loud enough to be heard over his voice.

Eren laughed and rose to his feet. “I think that’s a sign that you shouldn’t skip out on dinner.” He held out his hand to Armin. “Come on, let’s get out of here before the crazy person returns and wants to do some more experiments.”

“I don’t know, it might be fun to see what she comes up with next.” Armin grinned in the face of Eren’s impressive glare. “Perhaps she can weigh in on just how much you’re becoming like a certain captain!”

The spitting sound that Eren made just then was more annoyed cat than grouchy Corps captain. “You used to be such a good kid – I blame Mikasa.” *He* was the one to appear like a petulant child as he led Armin out of the lab.

“So which was I? A squalling brat or a good kid?” Armin pulled on what he considered his most innocent expression when Eren looked back at him.

“Both, which is why we called you ‘Trouble’.” Eren sounded much too weary and exasperated just then, but since he was doing his best to hide a smile, Armin counted it as a victory. “Now quit being such a pain in the ass – that’s Ymir’s name.”

Feeling better about things, Armin laughed and allowed himself to be led to the dining room.

*******

Mikasa hid a smile as she watched Petra and Olou; the pompous man was trying to argue about why Captain Ackerman would *obviously* pick another man to replace Gunther, and only succeeding in angering Petra with each word he spoke.

“- after all, there’s two male captains and only one female captain in our unit, most of the commanders are men – it’s clear that men are better suited-“

“Why? Because they live longer? It just goes to show that us women are the ones taking the risks and fighting harder!”

“Petra, that’s a very illogical argument, if you’d just conside-ack!”

“Please, you can’t even go five minutes without biting your own tongue! And that’s supposed to make me feel like you’re better than me!” Petra threw her hands up in the air as if she were thoroughly disgusted and fell back to walk beside Mikasa. “Why do we put up with them?”

“You’re asking that of someone who’s spent the majority of her life living with her brother, who calls me ‘Ms. Perfect’ and knows better than to think of me as weak,” Mikasa pointed out.

Petra seemed to consider that for a moment. “True, Eren’s much better mannered than most of these idiots.” She glared at a pouting Olou. “Tell me, have they improved at all over the years?”

Mikasa thought that Petra was being rather brazen about the questions she was asking, but the streets weren’t too busy at this time of night. In fact, they hadn’t seen anyone on their patrol for about a block now; people must be growing nervous because of the last couple of Malform attacks. “I can’t truly say that they have.” Eren didn’t really count, since he’d been raised properly – and quite a long time ago.

“I don’t know why not – it’s not as if we’re lacking for strong women.” Petra sighed as she rubbed her hands along the hilt of her blades. “Guess it’s a mystery of life.”

Most of the women whom Mikasa knew were more than the equal of any men – the women in the Corps could fight just as well if not better than their counterparts, with Captain Ackerman being the lone exception, and he was better than everyone else. Life after the collapse had been so difficult that only the strong could survive, and often women had fared better than the men because it took more than just physical strength, it took the ability to adapt, to *endure*.

Then there were the vampires, and the women among them were often the most deadly, with Annie being a classic example. Mikasa supposed it was because the women had to work harder at blending in, at bending society’s rules…. Really, this was a discussion that Armin would love and excel at, she thought to herself.

“-seems very quiet, doesn’t it?”

“Hmm?” Mikasa realized that the question had been posed to her and glanced over at Petra. “Quiet?”

“Yes, I said it seems quiet tonight.” Petra frowned and grasped at the hilt of her blades. In the front, Olou kept glancing about as if he expected a Malform to leap out at any moment.

“I thought perhaps they were staying inside because of the recent attacks.” Mikasa tugged down her scarf so she could get a better scent from the air.

“No, this seems quieter than normal,” Olou pointed out before he called out over the comm for a status check. He scowled while he waited for the responses, which was all negative.

Meanwhile, Mikasa took several slow, deep breaths. She thought she picked up the faint scent of Malform, but nothing definitive. It was as if they had crossed over the area within the past night… but that wasn’t unheard of for the creatures, as they would be searching the dome for prey throughout the night. “Malform were in the area, but not today,” she told Petra and Olou.

Petra searched the rooftops as they continued on their patrol. “This doesn’t feel right.”

Mikasa agreed, and for a moment worried about Jean – until she remembered that this wasn’t his patrol any longer. “I don’t think-“ She came to a halt, took a deep breath and then spun around to the right. Rushing toward one of the sewer grates, she took another deep breath. “It reeks of Malform.” The street around here smelled heavily of the creatures, but where were they? She tried to breathe through her mouth to help clear her senses.

Olou panted a few times as he caught up with her, Petra right on his heels. “Send backup to section 58T, we’ve the trail of Malforms,” he barked over the comm while glancing around. “You can’t trace them, Stieger?”

“I’m trying,” she nearly snarled at the man. Couldn’t he see that? Should she go up onto the roof? Were they up there?

Before she could decide, he made an annoying clicking sound similar to the captain’s and headed toward the nearest shop, its lights glowing through the windows covered with advertised sales. “I’m going to go question the people inside, see if they know something.”

Petra shot Mikasa a concerned look and took a few steps after him. “Perhaps we should wait until backup arrives before doing any door to door searches.”

“Nonsense, Petra. I know what I’m doing.” Olou reached the door, which began to slide open automatically. As the air began to rush outside, Mikasa felt her fangs push through her gums, saw the world dissolve into grey except for Petra and Olou – and the glowing tide of Malform that poured out of the shop to overwhelm Olou.

“Olou!” Petra screamed out her partner’s name as the Malform descended upon him, a pale tide of writhing flesh, glowing red eyes and gleaming teeth, and the man barely had time to cry out before he was engulfed by the creatures. She kept screaming, but even her shrill voice didn’t overcome the awful sound of flesh being torn apart.

Mikasa moved as soon as she realized what was happening, a too-familiar nightmare once more come to life, desperate to reach Petra before that awful writhing tide did, and felt her right hand wrap around the woman’s arm just in time. Something else grabbed hold of her, tried to pull her away, and Mikasa snarled with all her might, a savage, awful sound bursting free from her throat until the other force let go. She gathered Petra’s tattered body in her arms and backed up as quickly as she could, the wave of Malform parting around her as they poured out onto the street, and sunk to the ground.

Petra’s right arm was a bloody mess but still attached, her chest clawed up and a large slash across her throat. Mikasa quickly grabbed the pressure bandages from the pouch and applied them where she could, but she was terrified that it wasn’t enough. She knew that she couldn’t turn the poor woman… yet there was one thing she could do to try to buy Petra enough time until the medics arrived.

“Petra. Petra!” There was a fluttering of eyelashes as she continued to shout. “I need you to swallow, okay?” Hoping that the woman heard her, Mikasa removed her left hand from the bandage on Petra’s neck and raised it to her mouth, where she bit into the fleshy part of her palm. Biting free a large chunk of her own flesh, she lowered it to Petra’s open mouth and allowed the blood to pour into it.

At first she was afraid that Petra was too far gone, that nothing would happen; the blood began to spill out of Petra’s mouth and down the side of her face. Then the woman began to sputter and swallow, so Mikasa bit her hand again so that Petra would drink more blood. She figured that as much as she could get into her would be best, considering the severity of the wounds and the Malform infection.

She was so focused on keeping Petra alive that she didn’t sense Annie’s presence until too late.

“Aw, isn’t that cute? Fattening up your dinner or what?”

Mikasa wanted to jump up and tear out the bitch’s throat, to run away – the two impulses fought inside of her – yet she couldn’t do either, not when Petra needed her to keep pressure on the worst of the wounds. “You fucking-“

“Yes, can we skip that part? It’s so boring.” Annie squatted about a foot or two away from Petra and Mikasa, her hands clasped loosely in front of her; she was dressed in a light grey sweatshirt with the hood pushed back far enough to reveal her face and black jeans, appearing like any other woman out for the night.

Mikasa choked back a snarl and fought to keep her hands from curling into fists; she would only harm Petra now that her claws were out. “What could you possibly want other than to haul me back with you?”

Annie laughed, the sound bitter and unamused. “See, that’s where you’re wrong.” She grinned, the expression just as bitter, when Mikasa stared at her in disbelief. “We don’t have much time before your new friends show up, so I’ll cut to the chase.” One fingerless gloved hand waved at Petra’s supine form. “Are you getting tired of losing friends yet? Or are you so used to it by now that it doesn’t bother you?”

Half rising up before she could stop herself, Mikasa forced herself to settle back down for Petra’s sake. “*You’re* the ones who-“

“No, *you’re* to blame for their deaths.” Annie rose to her feet with the grace of a snake about to strike. “You keep insisting on running from what you truly are, to keep hiding among the sheep, so this is what happens.” Her eyes began to glow as she stared with obvious hatred at Mikasa. “Stop hiding Eren among the sheep or we’ll keep culling them until there’s nothing left for him to hide among, do you understand? The deaths will stop as soon as Eren steps forward like the wolf he really is.”

“Eren isn’t one of you,” Mikasa screamed. “Leave him alone!”

“Always denial with you.” Annie made a tsk’ing sound as she turned away. “Give us Eren or the humans pay in blood, Mikasa.”

Mikasa let go of Petra so she could go fight Annie, could make the bitch pay for threatening Eren like that, but Annie launched herself at the nearest wall and was a shadow flitting up it before she could even take two steps away from the wounded Corps fighter. Screaming in rage, Mikasa went back to Petra just as several members of the Freedom Corps began to arrive.

*******

Levi stared down at Petra’s bloodless face, his hands clenched into fists as a seething yet impotent rage roiled inside of him. He wanted to scream, to beat something into an unrecognizable, boneless pulp… yet every Malform he’d come across out there tonight was a shitty puddle of goo. There was nothing left to fight at the moment besides his own sense of failure.

“She’s doing remarkable well at the moment,” Hange told him, her voice quiet and her expression one of concentration as she studied the instruments connected to Petra by various sensors. “The infection… it’s not at a point yet where we have to take any… drastic measures.”

Where he had to cut off Petra’s head, is what she meant. Quite honestly, he was stunned to come here and find Petra still alive. “How long does she have?” How much longer until he had to kill yet another of his own people.

Hange studied the machine for several seconds before shaking her head. “I’ve never seen readings like this before – they’re in constant fluctuation. Her blood – no, her and *Mikasa’s* blood is fighting off the infection.” She jotted down a few notes in that damn book of hers. “For right now, it’s at least holding the infection at bay while the nanos work on healing the wounds.”

Which was a miracle in and of itself. He wanted to ask what Petra’s chances were of surviving, but didn’t want to hold out any hope when all too often that emotion only led to heartache. Instead, he reached out to adjust the white sheet covering Petra’s chest and then motioned for Hange to follow. “Come on, Erwin’s waiting for us.”

“All right.” Hange motioned Moblit over to the bed and gave him instructions to monitor Petra’s readings and to increase the nanos if she continued to respond to the healing. Once she finished with that, they left Medical for Erwin’s office, the mood out in the hallway decidedly more somber than it had been earlier in the day; losing yet another member of an elite squad and fighting more Malforms tended to do that to morale.

Levi opened the door to Erwin’s office to find Mikasa sitting in one of the chairs, her hair damp and dressed in a new uniform; she’d been covered in Petra’s blood when he’d come across her earlier, eyes flickering between gold and brown and desperate to go off hunting until he’d slapped some sense into her.

Erwin nodded in greeting, his expression grim even as he attempted a smile. “Thank you for joining us. How’s Petra doing?”

“She’s holding on – she’s a tough one.” Hange summoned a weak grin of her own and took the remaining chair, familiar with Levi’s preference to stand.

“Yes, she must in order to fight off the infection for so long.” Erwin’s sharp gaze settled on Mikasa. “It’s unheard of, in fact.” He continued to stare at Mikasa in that piercing manner. “I suppose it’s a good thing that she had some… help there to keep her going until proper medical attention could arrive.”

Levi noticed the way that Mikasa’s back stiffened and how Hange went still – fuck, he’d have to say that Erwin had somehow figured out that the siblings could heal people, which… well, Erwin was a smart guy. He’d probably noticed Levi’s quick recovery the last couple of weeks and put two and two together, just like Hange did.

“Yeah, really lucky for us and damn lucky for Petra,” he drawled, wanting to diffuse things before Mikasa went all bitchy on them. She’d helped Petra so he owed her, but she had to know that she couldn’t hide things so easily once she did that.

Erwin switched his attention to Levi, and Levi held that heavy gaze of his with an icy determination of his own. After a few seconds, Erwin nodded once and smiled; maybe the brats could heal with their blood, but they were their allies, not walking blood banks. “I hope she makes a swift recovery,” Erwin said, and his smile was quickly wiped away. “Mikasa told me that another vampire was behind tonight’s attack, as if there was little doubt.” He looked as if he was ready to go out there and do some hunting of his own.

“It was Annie,” Mikasa explained, her eyes glowing and her claws splayed out on her thighs. “She… she wanted to know where Eren was and yelled at me about hiding him. Then the backup started to arrive before she could do anything else.” She stared hungrily at her hands – at the sharp claws that sheathed and unsheathed again and again – as if she yearned for them to be buried inside of something. “I- Petra- I couldn’t do anything….”

“You did more than enough,” Erwin assured her, his voice deep and solemn. “We lost enough people tonight – any lives saved is a blessing.”

Levi kept any sarcastic comments to himself about not being so confident. “Why did they attack tonight? Why just one of them?” This whole mess stunk worse than decomposing Malforms and it bothered him – they had put a good bit of effort into taking Eren down the one time, so why not Mikasa? Sure, she couldn’t turn others into… whatever the hell they were, but all it took was five minutes with the siblings to know that where one went, so did the other. “If it were me, I’d have come out full force to drag you away in order to get Eren’s attention.”

Mikasa’s mouth twisted the same time that her claws dug into her thighs, causing smoke to rise from the wounds. “I don’t *know* - maybe Annie thought I’d get caught up in the rush of Malform and so be easier to take down, maybe Reiner and Bertolt were on their way and got delayed.”

“Maybe they’re trying to confuse us – if we can’t seem to predict their actions, we’re at a disadvantage,” Hange offered, her nose once more buried in her damn notebook. Considering that she was overlooking a prime example of Mikasa’s healing ability, Levi knew something was up.

So did Erwin. He bestowed upon Mikasa his ‘you can trust me’ smile and nodded toward the door. “You must be exhausted – thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.”

She didn’t waste a second in jumping to her feet. “I need to find Eren,” was all she said before rushing to the door, moving with that damn inhuman speed. Levi bit back on an order to move like a fucking human, figuring it was a waste of breath, and noticed that she slowed down as she closed the door behind her.

The room was quiet in the wake of the door closing, other than the soft scratch of Hange’s pen. Levi waited a few seconds just in case any brats with enhanced hearing were hovering about. “So, do you buy what she was selling?”

Erwin leaned over his desk with his fingertips pressed together. “Somewhat – I believe that she did run into one of the vampires, and that it probably was the one called ‘Annie’ since I noticed that Mikasa seems to particularly loathe her the most. As to what happened after that….” He shrugged, his massive shoulders moving with a surprising elegance before he reached into his desk to pull out a datapad. “It’s a shame that there’s no sound.”

Hange pried her nose out of the book to join Levi in watching Erwin pull up what appeared to be views from various cameras until he found one in particular; a shot angled at the top of the building. Gathered up there were clearly Eren, Armin and Krista.

“I knew you were a pervert, but a voyeur, too?” Levi clicked his tongue in distaste and swore to himself to be more careful about where he fooled around with Eren from now on.

“It’s merely for safety measures – hence the lack of sound.” Erwin glared at Levi for a few seconds and looked down in time to see Mikasa and Ymir join the others on the roof. “I really wish they’d use the damn gauntlets,” he grumbled.

“That is going against centuries of conditioning,” Hange pointed out. “Oh, someone seems rather worried.” They watched while Mikasa hugged Eren in an almost frantic manner.

Yeah, Levi would have to say that Eren was the topic of discussion earlier tonight. “Do you really think the vampire-bitch really just wanted to know where Mikasa’s baby brother was, hmm?”

Erwin sighed while he set the datapad aside. “Highly unlikely. What I want to know is why they seem so focused on Eren when in the past, the siblings said that they hunted them both.”

“It could be as I said, to throw us off our game.” Hange tucked her notebook aside and pushed her glasses further up her nose. “Perhaps make us doubt the two? If we don’t trust Eren and Mikasa, it might drive a wedge between us and make them leave.”

“Perhaps.” Erwin seemed to consider that. “It’s a rather big gamble to take, and it used up a lot of resources. Pixis has his people investigating how the Malforms managed to hide tonight – that obviously took careful planning and someone controlling them.”

If they were hoping to provide the man with some proof of vampires in the dome, this would be it. Levi let out a huffing breath that could barely be called a laugh and jerked his hand through his bangs. “His people will certainly have fun crawling through the sewers.”

“Better him than us,” Erwin agreed.

They all became quiet again, probably considering what Pixis and his people would find waiting for them in the sewers. Hange let out a low moan as she rose up and stretched her arms up in the air. “I’m heading back to Medical – let me know if anything interesting happens.” She paused to look at Levi. “If one of the sibling’s stop by, see if you can’t send them my way, all right? I think it might do Petra some good.”

He bristled at the comment at first, until he realized that *this time*, there was no dirty insinuation to go along with it. “*If* they do,” was all he promised her.

He fell behind her on the way to the door when Erwin called out his name. Wanting to get back to his own quarters and start on the paperwork waiting for him – much of it having to do with Olou’s death – he glanced at the man over his shoulder.

“You do realize that there’s a good chance that things are about to get a lot bloodier, don’t you?” There was a stark weariness on Erwin’s face as if he saw something that he was forced to accept.

“It’s been that way for years – I didn’t know that there was any other option for us.” Levi gave his friend a pitying look before he left. Really, they all knew there was only one way out of the Corps.

*******

Eren couldn’t help but pace back and forth, his hands clasped behind him since his claws were out and he didn’t want to tear into anything; he was too upset to hope for any control just then, too on the edge.

“Eren-“

“*Don’t* tell me to calm down,” he snapped at Armin, not in the mood for reassurance. “Olou is dead and Petra’s barely alive. That’s more people dead and hurt because of me.” More blood on his hands and Mikasa… Mikasa could have been one of them. “*DAMMIT!” His fingers spasmed with the need to dig into flesh, to hook into something tender and warm and *rend*.

Krista nearly jumped out of her skin at his outburst, while Armin merely stared at him, his blue eyes assessing and his body still; he was more used to Eren’s mood swings after their years together. “Would it make you feel better if we fought? Should I go get a set of blades and some padding?” Armin took a small step forward. “Or would some blood help?”

The calm, deliberate manner in which he spoke seemed to reach past the anger roiling inside of Eren, to remind him that he was here with friends. He struggled to take a deep breath and push aside the rage before it consumed him. “No.” Armin would do his best to help wear Eren down, but he couldn’t stand up to him like Mikasa could…. Mikasa…. “She could have been hurt tonight, dammit.”

“I know.” Armin approached him, much more confident now, and wrapped him in a comforting embrace. “I know, I keep thinking the same thing.” His voice choked on the words as he pressed his cheek against Eren’s forehead.

“But… she’s safe. She came back safe,” Krista reminded them. “You… you have to keep that in mind.”

Eren pulled away from Armin with some reluctance, about to yell at Krista that there had been too many fucking times when those damn vampires had torn into him and his sister when he noticed how she wrung at her hands, how her lower lip was bitten raw despite her enhanced healing ability from Ymir’s blood. *Ymir* still hadn’t returned yet, and even though they hadn’t heard of any more attacks from the trio, Krista would be a wreck until her lover was back.

“Yeah.” Eren forced himself to take a deep breath and to look out over the base laid out in front of him; he felt a deep urge to find the nearest exit and just run until he was exhausted, to get as far away from ‘civilization’ that he could. “She came back this time.”

Why had the trio let Mikasa go? Why hadn’t they fought? From the little information that he and Armin had managed to find out, it was only Petra who was injured, and there was no sign of Olou’s body – chances were pretty good there wasn’t even enough for him to turn. Eren had just caught a glimpse of his sister when she’d come back to headquarters and her uniform hadn’t even been torn, so the blood on it was Petra’s. He *needed* her here so he could get some answers.

He’d resumed pacing while Armin and Krista had taken to huddling close together when he heard the scrape of claws against concrete. Hurrying over to the edge, he looked down to find both Mikasa and Ymir crawling up the side of the building. “It’s about fucking time.”

“And good evening to you, Rebel,” Ymir shot back. “We’ve been a bit busy, not sitting around on our asses.”

“Oh fuck off.” Eren backed away so they could hop over the edge, and grabbed hold of his sister as soon as she was standing. “Hey,” he whispered as he held her tightly.

“Hey, you,” she whispered back, holding onto him as if he’d disappear at any second. She smelled of blood even though she’d changed her uniform and washed off, blood and Malform.

“All right you two. It’s starting to get icky around here.”

“Ymir….” Krista did something to make her girlfriend yelp in pain, which was something that Eren regretted not seeing. He pulled away from Mikasa but kept hold of her left hand.

“What happened tonight,” he asked as they joined the others in the middle of the roof, trying their best to keep their voices from carrying too far. “It was the trio, wasn’t it?”

A look of pain flashed over Mikasa’s pale face. “It was just one of them – Annie.” She fussed with her scarf as she tugged Eren closer to her. “It was clearly a trap, they must have tracked my route somehow and gotten the Malform ready for us. Olou set it off and….” She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “And Annie approached me while I was trying to keep Petra alive.” There was a hint of a snarl to her voice when she spoke about the vampire.

The world turned grey when Eren thought about Annie and what she’d done tonight. “How did you get away from her? Did the others show up in time to drive her off?”

“No.” Mikasa gripped his hand tightly enough to hurt. “No, she didn’t try to fight, and I was too busy trying to keep Petra alive to attack.” When Eren flinched at the hold she had on his hand, she let out a quick breath and relaxed her fingers. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. He smiled at her to show it was all right, his vision slowly returning to normal.

“What do you mean she didn’t fight? She just wanted to talk to you?” Armin came to stand at Mikasa’s right side.

“Yeah, I’m a bit confused about that myself.” Ymir frowned, her left arm wrapped tight around Krista. “What, did she want to just taunt you or something? Tell you that scarves are so passé?” She stared intently at Mikasa, her body tense as if ready to attack or flee at any moment.

Mikasa scowled at Ymir to show that she didn’t appreciate the ill humor before staring down at Eren, her eyes glowing gold in the darkness. “No, she… she told me that Olou’s death was my fault, and that there’d be more unless….” She clutched at his hand and shook her head. “She wants Eren to go to them.” She spit out the words as if they were poisonous.

Eren looked up at his sister, the one person who had been at his side through everything and felt an almost frenzied laughter bubble up through him. “Yeah… I’ll just walk out of here and head to the MP to go hang out with my best buddies.” He wrenched himself free of Mikasa’s hand and took several steps away. “It’ll all be better then! Peace and love and fluffy kittens!” His claws threaded through his hair and tugged on the strands while he laughed, amused by the… the *insanity* of it all. Had it been so simple all along? Just give in to the monster inside of him and the running would end, Mikasa would be safe?

“Eren!” His sister sounded anguished as she ran toward him, her hands yanking at his wrists to pull his hands from his hair. “Don’t- don’t even think it!” Tears sparkled in her golden eyes. “I won’t let them get you!”

Her pain drove the madness away, made him stop laughing as he reached to hold her beautiful face between his palms. “I know,” he breathed out, truly meaning the words. She’d never let him go, so even if he thought that Annie had told the truth, that she’d honor what she’d said tonight, he couldn’t take that path; Mikasa and probably Armin, too, would just chase after him and they’d be back to square one.

“Annie has to know that Eren won’t leave you behind,” Armin said, as if reading Eren’s thoughts. He came over to join them, reaching out to tug on Eren’s hair as if in mild reproach for Eren’s slight breakdown. “So what was tonight really about?”

A few feet away, Ymir made a rude sound, a look of disgust on her face. “Because she’s a manipulative, sadistic bitch, maybe?” When Krista looked ready to complain, Ymir shook her head. “No, darling, trust me on this.” She arched an eyebrow in Eren’s direction, and he had to nod in agreement with the assessment. “Rebel and Sunshine think so, too. Since Eren’s safely out of reach, she’s gonna do something to mess with his head even this far away, and I’m betting tonight was her first stab at it. Now you don’t know if she’s going to leave Mikasa alone or come after her with everything they’ve got.”

“That… sounds fucked up enough to be an Annie plan.” Eren went to rub at his eyes and remembered his claws just in time. “Shit, why the hell don’t we just run for the nearest seal and get our asses out of here?” He could *taste* the fresh air, could feel the sunlight on his skin. More than anything just then, he wanted *out* of the damn dome.

Armin gave his head a frantic shake. “That might also be what Annie wants – if she can’t get to you here, then she drives you out of the dome, where there’s other vampires waiting. There’s only so many exit points.”

“Not if we go during daylight.”

“Not if they have some of their human lackeys waiting.” Ymir let go of Krista so she could approach Eren, Mikasa and Armin with a haunted expression on her face. “You can’t put your faith in it always being them coming after you.” Krista hurried to resume her place at her lover’s side.

Eren didn’t want to give up the argument so easily, to admit that his friends were right. “Then we *fight*, dammit! We-“

“And what about the other domes,” Ymir shouted, her face growing flush with anger and her eyes glowing. “What if you do happen to get away from here, what about the other domes?”

“Then- dammit!” Eren snarled as he swiped his right hand through the air, wishing it was Annie or some other vampire. “I don’t know!” He just wanted to fight, to stop having people doing the fighting for him and end up dying instead.

The anger seemed to drain out of Ymir; she let out a shaky breath and wrapped her arms around Krista as if she needed the small blonde’s presence more than anything. “Yeah, well, join the club. I just think that you leaving the base is a mistake.”

“So do I,” Mikasa told him, quick to grab his hand as if she could keep him there by holding on to it.

“This does seem to be the safest place for you,” Armin agreed. Then something seemed to occur to him. “What did you tell Commander Smith and the others,” he asked Mikasa.

She hugged Eren’s arm against her side and bared her teeth for a moment. “I told them that Annie wanted Eren, that she was questioning me about him and that their arrival drove her away.”

Great, so he was *never* going to get off the base and feed properly, was he?

“Thank fuck for small favors,” Ymir muttered.

That earned her another dirty look from Mikasa, whose expression soon turned a bit guilty. “However, now they know about using our blood to heal – it’s how I kept Petra alive.”

Ymir appeared furious for a moment, and then just let out a very weary, long sigh. “Guess it would’ve happened eventually with the all the tests they’re running.” Then something seemed to occur to her. “Is the girl still alive?”

Eren, Mikasa and Armin exchanged looks between each other. “Uhm, last I heard,” Armin said as he scratched at his head. “Captain Hange got her settled in Medical before going off to talk to Commander Smith.” He seemed to think about it some more. “I should get down there, see if she’s still all right – it would be good to run some tests, find out how she’s reacting to Mikasa’s blood and the Malform infection.” He paused to give Mikasa a quick hug before he raced over to the edge of the roof and used his gauntlet to reach the ground.

“Bright kid, but not all there, is he?” Ymir made spinning motions toward her temple.

“Who is, these days?” His fingers back to normal, Eren was finally able to rub at his tired eyes.

“Wow, words of wisdom there, Rebel.” Ymir urged Krista toward the edge of the roof as well. “I think it’s time for us to head off to bed – I’m willing to bet that there’s going to be extra training sessions tomorrow.”

He watched them leave, envious of their ability to go about freely. While he stood there, Mikasa came up behind him and engulfed him in her arms. “It’ll get better,” she murmured in his ear. “We’ll find a way to fight back.”

“The games are even worse than them chasing us,” he admitted as he rested back against her. “I just… fighting is so much easier. I just want to fight them and get this over with, to end it finally.” He felt so tired, as if he could sleep for days; part of it was the lack of adequate blood, while the rest… what he wouldn’t give to know that he was somewhere safe, him and Mikasa and Armin and-

He inhaled sharply and rubbed at his eyes once more. “I think I need some blood.”

Mikasa shifted around until she could face him, her expression stern and almost matronly. “You really shouldn’t be giving Captain Hange so much blood for her tests while feeding from humans.”

“I know,” he sighed, barely resisting the urge to call her ‘mom’. “But it’s all I’m getting for the foreseeable future unless you’re able to bring a Malform back for me.” He gave her a quick hug then stepped back. “I’ll see if either her or Levi are free so they can supply me with something.”

Judging from the way that Mikasa’s lips pressed together, she guessed that he would try Levi’s first, but she didn’t argue with him, instead she followed him over to the ledge. “Don’t be gone too long.”

“I won’t.” They checked to make sure no one was around and held hands as they jumped down together.

*******

Levi had just settled at his desk when he heard a tentative knock at his door; cursing in annoyance, he shoved himself onto his feet and stomped over to the door to open it, only to blink a few times in surprise when he found Eren on the other side of it.

“Ah, yeah, got anything by way of a midnight snack,” the brat asked, a lopsided smile on his face and a weariness to his eyes that made him look older than normal.

“You better not be meaning me,” Levi warned as he waved Eren inside.

“Nah, I don’t need anything that bitter and nasty this time of night.”

“Ha ha.” Levi followed Eren into the room and noticed how he stopped a few feet away from the desk, as if he had no intention of sitting down. “You not planning on staying long?”

Eren shrugged, his hands clasped behind his back as if he was trying to keep from fidgeting for once. “It’s late and I’m sure you’ve a lot to do. I’ll just take the blood and get back to Mikasa.” He sounded tired – looked tired as well – and didn’t seem in the mood for any banter.

Levi’s eyes narrowed, suddenly suspicious of the change in demeanor; the brat he knew was never this well-behaved unless something was up. “What’s the hurry? I thought you didn’t sleep much and all I’m doing is a bunch of paperwork.” He leaned back against his desk and folded his arms over his chest. “You didn’t answer me – you not staying long?”

The question prompted a drawn-out sigh from Eren as he jerked his right hand through his hair, further tousling the messy strands. “I’m not staying *here* very long – look, I didn’t think you’d be in the mood for much tonight after everything happened. *I’m* not in the mood tonight,” he growled.

“I’m not talking about fucking, you shitty brat, I’m talking about if you’re planning on running!” Levi stood up straight and took a step closer, his hands on his hips to prevent him from lashing out at the idiot, to grab hold and shake him or… or do *something*. “Don’t tell me that you’re not thinking of hightailing it out of here, you and your precious sister.”

Eren stared at him, golden eyes wide and luminous like the sun. He blinked slowly once and nodded, his hand rising in the air as if to grasp something that only he could see. “Yes, I am – I want to run so badly I can *taste* the air outside, can feel it moving over my skin.” He closed those fucking gorgeous eyes of his and shuddered. “It’s amazing out there, so many scents and sounds…. It makes me feel half-dead, being stuck in here.” His eyes opened up and were shining even brighter as he gazed at Levi. “But everyone tells me it’s a trap if I leave, as if I don’t fucking know it already. I still want to leave because it *is* a trap, one I’ll head right into – a fight where I’m alone against *them*. No one else to be hurt, no more running, no more blood except my own. I don’t care if I fall as long as I can take some of them down with me.”

Judging from the fervor in the idiot’s eyes and voice, he truly did feel that way, and would be happy making a sacrifice out of himself. Levi wanted to kick the shit out of him right now, to beat him senseless – no, to beat *sense* into him, yet forced himself to remain still. “And why the hell should you do any of that?”

Those eyes flashed even brighter. “Because-“

He cut off the angry rebuttal by finally reaching out to grab a handful of the grey shirt and pulled Eren in close. “Why should you be the only one to fight, you fucked-up fool? You think you’re the only one who’s earned that right? Haven’t all of us sacrificed blood, sacrificed *more* than that? So why should you be the only one to fight them?”

Eren stared at him for several seconds, his lips moving silently as his eyes slowly dimmed until he shook his head. “I….”

“Well? Still think you should go off and fight alone?”

“…no.” He sighed and slumped forward, his hands coming up to rest against Levi’s chest. “No. I can’t promise that I won’t ever go, that I’ll stay forever… but I’ll stay for a little longer.”

It felt as if someone punched Levi in the chest just then, all of the air suddenly left him. His grip loosened on Eren’s shirt as his hands slid up to the brat’s narrow shoulders. “What, you think any of us can promise more than that? It’s good enough.” Before he stopped to think what he was doing, his right hand tangled in that ridiculous hair and tilted Eren’s head for a kiss.

Their lips brushed together tentatively at first, then pressed together with more conviction. It lacked the passion of previous kisses, yet Levi felt… felt a sense of comfort from holding Eren close, soaking in his warmth those precious few seconds. Smooth fingers caressed his cheek as they broke apart.

“So, about that blood?” Eren licked at his lips and shifted back a little. “I get the impression that you’ll get all kicky on me if I start nibbling on the new recruits.”

“I will kick you so damn hard that maybe it’ll wake up that miniscule brain of yours.” Levi clicked his tongue in disgust as he went over to the mini-fridge to go get a bag. “After you have your damn snack, you can go check on Petra.”

Eren trailed after him. “She’s still alive?”

“She’s fighting off the infection but not out of danger – Hange thinks some more of your blood will do the trick.” He retrieved the bag and handed it to Eren, who held onto it for a few seconds before handing it back to him.

“I’ll get some off of Captain Hange, then. Save it for next time.” Other than giving him a curt wave of goodbye, Eren didn’t waste any time before leaving.

Feeling a bit amused despite himself and finally hopeful for Petra’s chances, Levi returned to his desk and the work waiting for him.

*******

 


	19. Cat People (Putting Out Fire)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so since the wifi situation looks dubious starting tomorrow, I managed to get this week's chapter done a little early. Normally I like to let it sit a day or two and then review it for any mistakes, but... yeah, that's not happening (I don't think it's a great idea to post this from my work pc for some silly reason...). Hopefully there's not too many mistakes - I'll have to give it another read through when I post the next chapter and fix them then. And here's hoping that the following chapter won't be too delayed because of the work trip.
> 
> Anyway, new chapter! Yay! Lots of stuff happening in this one! Probably something some people saw coming. We're actually getting to the final chapters in the fic if you can believe it (not that I'm going to even try to say how many are left, but yeah, the plot is coming to a head now).
> 
> As always, the kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!  
> *******

*******

Mikasa sat perched at the edge of Armin’s bed, her hands clasped before her as she watched him sleep. She’d done this ever since he was a child, had seen him grown up from that small child haunted by nightmares into the lovely ‘young’ man that he’d become. There were shadows around his closed eyes and frown lines on his forehead, signs that he hadn’t gotten enough sleep during the night – he’d been up too late working in Medical, so she was loathe to wake him up just yet. However, the noise of everyone else in the common room going about their morning routine as they prepared for the day was about to do the job for her.

Armin stirred a little, the thick brown blanket similar to what was issued to everyone sliding a little down his left shoulder; he mumbled something that sounded like ‘five more minutes’, prompting Mikasa to smile. No, Armin disliked waking up just as much as Eren had back… well, back *then*.

She’d just decided to wait it out a little longer when a loud bang of someone slamming their locker shut managed to stir Armin awake. “Asshole,” he mumbled as he rubbed at his face, his shoulder-length hair almost as tousled as Eren’s and a decided glare on his face as he slowly sat up in bed. It took him a couple of seconds to notice her sitting there at the bottom. “Mikasa?” He smiled at first, and then began to panic. “Is everything all right? Where’s Eren?”

“He’s fine – he’s at the showers.” Mikasa smiled and stood up. “I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”

“Uh, other than feeling like I got two hours of sleep, I’m fine.” He rubbed his eyes for a moment and then shifted about to place his feet on the floor, clothed in his underwear and a t-shirt. “Petra’s doing much better now.”

“That’s good to know.” Mikasa was glad that the woman would survive, but her main concern was Eren and Armin. “You’re going back to the lab today?”

“Yeah.” Armin ran his fingers through his hair and looked up at her, his eyes narrowed as if trying to figure out why she was asking him about his day. “Captain Hange is excited about… well, we’re checking out Petra’s blood.”

Because of Mikasa and Eren giving their blood to her, no doubt. Mikasa mostly trusted Captain Hange, and she thought that the Short Bastard might have an interest in keeping Eren around whole and safe for a bit longer but she’d be on guard now – and knew Armin would warn them if they were about to become involuntary test subjects. “All right. Could you do me a favor before you disappear into the lab for the rest of the day? Well, two – I want to make sure you eat a good breakfast first,” she told him with a stern frown. He looked as if he’d been skipping meals lately.

Armin smiled up at her, his blue eyes bright with affection. “Anything for you.”

She reached down to tuck into place a stray strand of blond hair. “Always the charmer,” she chided. “After you eat that breakfast, I need you to fetch me something.”

*******

Armin stared at the results from the latest blood sample and compared it to one taken from last night; there was a marked improvement in the infection rate, so much so that it might only take another dose or two of Eren’s blood to push her to the point where she wasn’t in any more danger of being turned and her body could slowly clear out the infected cells on its own. Armin felt a sense of excitement build inside of him as he punched the new data into the program he’d compiled earlier, so it could set about graphing the infection rate and calculate just how long it would take for Petra to recover – now that they had a hope of Petra recovering.

While he waited on the program, he sat back and stared off at the far white wall of the lab, the bland paint broken up by various splotches of Captain Hange’s ‘experiments’. Was *this* what Grisha Jaeger had intended when he’d infected his son all those years ago? Was it as Armin had suspected, that Eren wasn’t supposed to turn people but that he carried a cure to the Malform infection? Did Grisha turn his son into a vampire hybrid to save what he could of his research? If so, why would he go to such drastic lengths – both to alter Eren in such a way and not come outright with an important cure?

They’d never know until they finally reached that box hidden away so long ago, and maybe not find all of the answers even then. Yet Armin felt that they’d stumbled upon an important piece of the puzzle just now….

“How does it go?”

“Fuck!” He bolted upright in his chair and clutched at his chest, certain right then that he was having a heart-attack since his heart was beating so hard. Turning to glare at Captain Hange, who had a confused look on her face, he motioned in her general direction. “What are you doing here?” And what was it with people sneaking up on him lately?

“You asking that in an existential sense such as ‘why are we on Earth’ or a more general ‘why is your ass in this lab’?”

“The latter one.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and got up to go over to where a large beaker of ‘coffee’ was simmering over a Benson burner. “Shouldn’t you be getting your head beaten into a wall by Ymir rather than scaring me to death?”

Captain Hange laughed with what seemed to be delight and joined him at the ‘drink’ station. “Can’t say that it wasn’t fun, but I ended my training early to check up on Petra.” She clapped her hands together in excitement and did a weird little dance that made her blades and ponytail swing about. “Her wounds are healing at an amazing pace! At this rate she might regain full function in the arm!”

“As long as she doesn’t turn,” Armin pointed out while he added some sugar and milk to the coffee to help make it palatable.

“She hasn’t yet, so I think it’s safe to say that she’ll be fine.” Captain Hange leaned forward to rest her elbows on the counter and propped her chin up on her hands. “What’s the result of the latest bloodwork, hmm?”

He paused for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, it looks as if she’ll recover.”

The captain’s brown eyes became unfocused behind the lenses of her glasses. “To think that Petra would become the first person to successfully recover from a massive Malform infection – this is history right here.”

“Yes, but how do we want it to go down in history?” Armin made sure he had her attention before he continued. “If word gets out exactly how Petra was healed, people will tear Eren and Mikasa apart to get at their blood – or worse, chain them up and drain them dry.” He refused to let that happen.

Captain Hange straightened up and nodded. “That would be incredibly short-sighted of them. You don’t risk the source of your cure that way, especially since you don’t know if there’s alternate ways to manufacture it.”

Armin managed the most condescending snort possible as he rolled his eyes. “And we all know so very well that the human race is anything but short-sighted,” he remarked, sarcasm all but dripping from the words.

“Aw, you’re much too cute to be so jaded.” The captain reached out to ruffle his hair. “Leave that to sour-pussies like my Sweetie – he’s got the beady little eyes and the bad attitude for it.” She grinned like the maniac she was for a few seconds before she sighed, her demeanor changing into something more serious. “No, we’ll make sure to protect Eren and Mikasa – it’ll be nice to get more blood from them and see if we can’t isolate whatever it is that fends off the infection, something to do with their white blood cells… see if we can’t compare it to Ymir’s….”

He combed his fingers through his hair and risked derailing her thoughts. “It might be that the answers lie in Grisha’s box – your suggestions are great and along the lines of what I was thinking, but I can’t help but wonder if maybe it’s what Eren’s father left behind.” Whatever he and Captain Hange came up with, it probably wouldn’t be along the lines of anything of large scale, not with just Eren and Mikasa providing the base of the serum. He still believed that Grisha Jaeger had *something* of value hidden away.

Captain Hange hummed to herself for a few seconds. “Dammit, I need to make Erwin let me out of here!” She smacked her right fist into her left palm. “It’s driving me crazy, knowing that there’s all that delicious knowledge just *waiting* for me!” At Armin’s blank stare, she chuckled and pushed up her glasses. “All right, making me even more crazy.”

“As if that’s not a frightening thought,” he mumbled.

“Oh hush, you.” She waved a long finger in front of his face and then took a step back. “I can put you in charge of Levi’s annual physical if I want.”

“I- you wouldn’t- I’m not a- that’s an abuse of-“

She laughed at his pathetic attempts to stutter out excuses and waved goodbye. “I’m going to check up on Petra and go torment Erwin – maybe if I do it enough he’ll throw me out of the dome himself.”

Armin sighed in relief as he watched her leave; she was brilliant, of that there was no doubt, but she was *mad*. He had to wonder what that said about him, considering that Eren and Mikasa kept assuring him that he was just as bright.

*******

Jean rubbed his hands up and down the sides of his jeans in as surreptitious a manner as possible; this was *so* not the type of place he would normally be found in, with its walls painted a faint grey, the sounds of what had to be stringed instruments playing in the background, people dressed in fancy clothes all around him and *actual artwork* hanging on the walls. Hell, he was standing in front of a holo projection of some sculpture, something about an ugly girl in a skirt standing with her arms clasped behind her. Yet Mikasa had picked the place for their third date, deciding that it would be something different than a restaurant since the ‘gluttons’ weren’t tagging along this time, and Jean had been so happy at the chance to be alone with her that he hadn’t questioned anything….

“So, you know about art?” He didn’t know a damn thing about it, but Mikasa had spent the last hour walking around the place, pausing to stare at the paintings, pictures and holos with that small smile on her face, something appearing pleased, sometimes appearing sad.

“I know a little.” She slanted a look at him from the corner of her dark eyes and gave him one of her sad smiles. “Our – Eren’s and my mother – loved it, and would always… well, she taught us to appreciate it.”

Since Mikasa didn’t talk about her past very much – hell, she usually shut things down when Jean brought up anything to do with her brother – Jean found himself taking a step forward and almost said something without thinking. He forced himself to take a deep breath before he asked something that would just make her upset. “Then it must be nice, to come here.”

Her smile strengthened and she reached out to thread her fingers through his. “Yes, it is.” She turned her head to look back at the ‘sculpture’. “Especially since Eren gets bored after about twenty minutes.”

That prompted a laugh from him, loud enough to earn some disproving looks from a few of the other patrons. Feeling a little sheepish over his outburst, he tucked his free hand into a pants pocket and pretended to study the statue. “So, what’s so amazing about this artwork? Know anything about it?”

“Well, it was from a famous pre-collapse artist who did both paintings and sculptures, and caused a lot of criticism when it first appeared.”

He paid more attention to the life-like sculpture and frowned. “It’s not very… pretty, is it? I thought artwork was supposed to be pretty.”

Mikasa’s right hand played with the end of her ever-present right scarf. “It’s representative of life – and life is rarely pretty.” She stared intently at the statue as if reading something from it.

He felt as if he was missing something here and wanted to change the topic; he didn’t like it when things got too dark – he felt sometimes that there was too much darkness in Mikasa’s life. “So, what happened to it? You gonna tell me it’s worth more than I’ll ever dream of making so we just get to see a holo?” A lot of the ‘artwork’ here was either on loan from various ministers or reproductions of items owned by chairmen.

“Oh no – this one was lost a long time ago.” Mikasa indicated to one of the holo’s blurry edges. “They must have scavenged some pre-collapse footage and enhanced it.”

“Really?” Jean knew that a lot of items of ‘cultural significance’ were lost – or claimed to have been lost – but he never really gave it much thought. “So no more ugly ballerina statue?”

“Supposedly.” The smile on Mikasa’s face just then took on an enigmatic quality. “It was in one of the major museums at the time of the collapse, and a lot of looting occurred in the following years. Perhaps it was melted down for the bronze, perhaps it was bartered for supplies and is hidden in some private collection, perhaps it’s tucked away in some cave for its own good.”

“Seems silly to stick it in a cave if it’s worth money.”

“Some people aren’t concerned about money.” Mikasa shrugged and then moved on to the next sculpture, another holo – this time of a massive vase. “Some are more concerned about honoring-

She didn’t get a chance to explain any further since there was a loud beeping noise coming from inside Jean’s black jacket. He flashed her an embarrassed grin and reached in to pull out his datapad, wondering who the hell was sending him a message just then; if it was Connie giving him an update on his date with Sasha, he was going to need a new partner. Since the beep wasn’t the loud double-staccato of the MP’s emergency signal he knew it was a private message, and he didn’t really know too many people who would send him a message on his work device. “This better be important.” He scowled at the screen as he flipped to the message.

“Hmm?” Mikasa watched him while he stared at the screen. “Is it something about work?”

“It’s- I don’t think so.” Confusion won out over annoyance as he opened the message, which was from an unknown sender. “Someone named Daz-“

He almost didn’t see Mikasa move before the datapad was snatched out of his hands – one moment she was standing a foot or two away with her hands clasped in front of her, and the next she was frantically scrolling through the message, her expression intent while she read it.

“Ah, you know him?”

“Yes.” Just the one word, snapped in an almost churlish manner. She stared at the screen as if this ‘Daz’ had written a report on it, her body perfectly still except for her eyes moving back and forth, and then she shoved the datapad his way. “He’s in the Freedom Corps. I need to leave, now.” She didn’t wait for an answer, she merely turned and began to quickly walk away.

“Hey, wait!” Jean glanced down at the screen as he followed, but all he saw was ‘Eren – Kälte. T.’

“So what, is it about your brother? You just drop everything if-“ He nearly tripped over his feet in his haste to stop when Mikasa whirled around, her face almost frightening in its blankness and took two long, quick steps to catch up with him.

“He’s my *brother*. I will do *anything* when it comes to him, and the sooner you respect and accept that, the better. You’re a nice boy, Jean, but don’t get in my way.” She spun around without saying another word, her face still that perfect mask, and hurried out of the gallery so fast that her scarf trailed behind her as if a scarlet banner.

He watched after her for a more few seconds, stunned by how such a nice date had gone so… so wrong so quickly. How had Mikasa’s friend known how to reach him? Why had she left like that, over some ambiguous message? Why was her brother so precious to her? Jean loved his parents, but it would take more than some odd word to get him to leave in the middle of a date.

He tucked away the datapad then rubbed at the back of his head, feeling confused and upset. Why was it that the more time he spent with Mikasa, the less it seemed that he knew about her and the more infatuated he became? Letting out a slow breath, he left the gallery as well, deciding he might as well head back home.

*******

Eren pretended to not hear the sniggers from the ‘older’ Freedom Corps fighters as he made his way to Levi’s quarters. His temper flared when he caught a barely whispered ‘well, that’ *one* way to get on Ackerman’s special squad, I suppose’, and had to curl his fingers to hide his claws and duck his head to cover his eyes. Yeah, yeah, he got it – weren’t they the clever fucks for insinuating that he got where he was by lying on his back? Or was it on his knees? Hell, maybe it was both ways, since Levi sure was a finicky asshole. Eren was two seconds away from pointing out that fact… until he thought of what would happen when Mikasa found out. Yeah, no need for bloodbaths between their own ‘people’, not with the trio out there….

He forced himself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly before he knocked on the door. It took Levi a moment to answer it, and unlike Eren the man was still dressed in most of his uniform, minus the gauntlet, jacket and gloves since he was still expected to go out on patrol later tonight; Eren felt a stab of jealousy over that fact. Dammit, he was starting to go a bit stir-crazy right about now.

Levi grunted something by way of greeting and jerked his chin toward his desk while he stepped away from the door.

“And good afternoon to you, too.” Eren tucked back a lock of hair that was falling onto his face and frowned, uncertain about what seemed to be causing Levi’s foul mood *this* time. Yeah, today’s practice hadn’t gone very well, considering it was just him, Levi and Erd, but he’d left it believing that Levi was looking forward to him coming here after he cleaned up.

Levi’s frown intensified and he clicked his tongue in obvious annoyance while he reached up to shove Eren’s damp bangs behind his ears. “Why don’t you just cut the damn mess short? It drives me crazy, seeing you fuss with it all the time.” His fingers continued to comb through the strands, the touch almost soothing.

Eren closed his eyes and let out a slow, humming breath. “Well… I guess it’s habit.” He huffed in protest when the asshole yanked on a strand and opened his eyes to glare, which of course amused the sadistic bastard. “Not a lot of places around to get your hair cut after civilization collapses, you know.”

“You think there are in Tartarus?” Levi scoffed and ran his fingers along the nape of Eren’s neck, his smile becoming more pleased when Eren shivered. “I always made do.”

Eren touched the neatly trimmed bangs that just barely missed falling into Levi’s intense grey eyes. “Yes, but I’m sure you had something a bit better than a damn sword.” He winced at that particular memory. “Mikasa did her best with it, but it took us a few months to come across a decent knife again, and at that point….” He shrugged, the motion causing some of his hair to slither free from behind his ears. “It was easier to just let it reach a certain length and then cut it all off.” He lightly traced the arch of Levi’s right cheekbone. “At least after we turned, we didn’t have to worry about things like lice or ticks anymore.”

“Nice.” Levi grimaced at the mention of parasites and gave him a not-so gentle shove away. “You and your fellow bloodsuckers.” He stomped over to his desk.

Tempted to regale the clean-freak with stories about flea-infested camps, Eren reluctantly decided it would be in his best interest to change the topic. “So, Armin told me that it looks as if Petra’s going to recover.”

Instead of going to sit behind the desk, Levi whirled around and leaned against the front of it, his arms folded across his chest. “Yes, Hange told me much the same thing after practice.” He stared intently at Eren as if sizing him up for something. “You know not to trust the crazy bitch if she starts asking for a lot of blood, right? Don’t let her drain you dry looking for some damn cure – or let Erwin talk you into anything.” He spat out the words in a rush, leaving Eren with the impression that this topic – Petra’s recovery and his part in it – was the reason for his anger.

“Ah, yeah, I do.” He came to a stop within arm’s reach of Levi and chuckled, a little nervous from the intensity of the gaze from those grey eyes. “Being a lab rat fucked things up enough for me once, I’m not about to just blindly agree to anything like that again.”

“Good.” Levi reached out to snag hold of his grey shirt and yanked him forward. “Because you’re *mine* - I have first claim to you,” he breathed against Eren’s lips before he kissed him.

Part of Eren wanted to say that no one had any claim to him, that Levi was delusional as well as sadistic, but most of him was too busy enjoying the damn kiss. He moaned in happiness and moved forward until he was nestled between Levi’s thighs, his arms draped over those surprisingly muscular shoulders; he liked the feel of Levi pressed against him, liked how *solid* he was, all muscle and bone and attitude. Oh fuck, was it going to be good to be beneath him….

He whined a bit in frustration, his hands sliding down Levi’s firm chest, along the warm cloth of the white shirt until he reached the waistband of the white pants. Once there, he began to tug at the shirt to pull it free, all the while kissing Levi back with a desperate fervor.

Levi nipped at his bottom lip before trailing his mouth down to Eren’s neck, leaving a burning trail along sensitive skin while his hands cupped Eren’s ass. “You are here to get fucked, right?” His hands gave Eren’s ass a firm squeeze as he asked the question.

Eren shivered as warm air blew onto the damp spot where Levi’s mouth had just been and rocked his hips forward. “Ohh… if you don’t fuck me this time, I’m going to gut you with… with a damn teacup of all things.” He didn’t care if it made sense or not, as long as it got the point across.

Levi’s lips twitched as if he wanted to laugh yet he shook his head instead. “Shitty brat,” was all he said as he pushed away from the desk, urging Eren to go along with him.

“Asshole,” Eren mumbled as he stumbled backwards. He groaned when the insult earned him a smack on the ass and forced his fingers to fumble along the buttons of Levi’s shirt. Dammit, couldn’t the man prefer jerkins or sweatshirts or something easier? He’d probably get bitched at or kicked if he just tore the damn thing….

Meanwhile, Levi nipped at his neck while attacking his pants, flicking open the button and pulling down the zipper. Eren let out a needy whine and nearly tripped over the slippers he’d worn out of the showers before deciding to just kick them off, desperate to shed his clothes in the fastest manner possible. Finally reaching the last of the damn buttons, he paused in removing Levi’s shirt so he could yank his own over his head.

Levi chuckled at the spectacle, the sound dark and pleased. “You’re not a bit eager about this, are you,” he asked as they passed the threshold of the bedroom, his own hands busy shedding his shirt, which he draped over the back of some padded chair rather than dropping to the floor as Eren had done to his own.

“Tell me there’s not a chance of Captain Hange barging in here demanding that we let her film this for posterity’s sake and I’ll slow down.” Eren smirked when Levi’s expression turned grim and he suddenly attempted to remove his left boot with his right foot. “Yeah, I thought so.”

“Shut it, brat.” Levi hopped about for a moment and then appeared to lose his balance, not helped by the fact that his pants were partially undone. “Dammit, do something!”

Eren bit back on a laugh as he shoved the short bastard back on the bed before kneeling down and grabbing at his left foot. “They might be sexy as hell, but these things have a bit of a drawback.”

“Yeah, well they’re just fine for kicking a certain twink’s asses,” Levi grumbled while he pushed himself up onto his forearms and watched while Eren pulled off first the one boot and then the other.

“Again with the sweet talk.” Eren tossed the second boot behind him with a bit more force than necessary and then joined Levi on the bed, sliding up against him until their lower bodies rocked together. “Don’t you want something other than your foot up my ass?” He breathed against Levi’s lips as his eyes became heavy-lidded.

Hands tangled in his hair as he was pulled closer, lips pressing against his for a searing moment and then he was twisted about until he lay back against the bed with a smug Levi looming above him.

“I told you that *I* would be in charge,” Levi insisted as his hands pressed against Eren’s shoulders as if to hold him down.

“Then do it,” Eren murmured, the world fading away except for Levi, who glowed so brightly in his sight. Hunger filled him, languid yet hot, a hunger that wouldn’t be satisfied until Levi stopped being so damn pissy and *fucked* him. He rocked his hips upward the same time he arched his neck, his lips parted slightly while he looked at Levi through his lashes. “I need you to fuck me,” he all but moaned.

He could see the impact he had on the bastard, could almost see the warring thoughts of ‘is this a scam’ versus ‘dammit, just fuck him now’. Levi’s pupils were blown and his normally pale face flushed, his strong hands dug into Eren’s shoulders almost painfully before the desire won out and he leaned down for a savage kiss.

It wasn’t an act – Eren wanted him so badly that he was about to claw at the mattress in need, about to flip him over and ride him until he broke. Something about Levi infuriated him and broke down his control, and now that he’d given in this far… well, no one better damn well interrupt them.

He struggled to restrain his fangs during the kiss, to allow Levi to dominate it, to not nip back and risk spilling blood. Levi made it *very* clear that he wanted to be in control, from the way his hands roamed and clenched around Eren’s body to the way he set the pace of grinding their hips together. Eren lost himself to the scent/taste/feel of the other man, pleased for once to be having sex with someone he wanted so badly.

Because he *did* want Levi so badly, he reached up for the headboard and grasped it tightly, the metal frame creaking slightly between his fingers. Levi didn’t notice it at first, until his hands slipped down into Eren’s loose pants. “Oi, a little help here would be nice.” He glanced up at Eren, his black hair falling into his eyes in a rare moment of dishevelment.

“Not… a good… idea,” Eren panted as he struggled with himself. He bared a hint of fangs at Levi before shaking his head. “Just… no.”

Levi lifted up on his arms for a few seconds and stared up at the headboard – at Eren’s hands. “Huh, that happen often?”

“Not really.” Eren flexed his claws and whined, displeased at the loss of Levi’s body against his. “Don’t stop, dammit!”

Frowning at the order, Levi’s eyes narrowed yet he resumed stripping Eren of the last of his clothes; Eren moaned as they were removed, his eyes burning brighter when it was Levi’s turn to strip naked. Damn, but that body….

“Just fucking great – and here I was planning on making you do the messy shit while I watched,” Levi complained while he sat back between Eren’s legs and leaned over to the night stand to fetch the bottle of lube.

Eren bared his teeth again and gave the asshole a kick with his left foot. “Life is… so fucking hard. You’ll have to… work a bit… to fuck me.” He struggled to breathe, his heart racing and body feeling as if it was burning up. What was wrong with him?

“Your ass better be worth it.” Levi frowned as he poured the lube onto his fingertips.

“Three… hundred thousand credits,” Eren reminded him as he took a deep breath and forced his body to relax.

Levi was better than most at the whole prep thing, taking his time to work up to two fingers before Eren whined and thrashed his head about. “That’s enough, just do it.”

“You saying that I’m-“

“Oh for- I’m saying that I’m fine, just do it!” Eren bared his teeth and hooked his heels around the asshole’s waist. “Who’s… been doing this longer?” He didn’t think he could wait any longer; something was scrabbling inside of him, desperate for… for….

He was graced with one of Levi’s more potent glares for his troubles, but the bastard finally seemed to get the hint. “Fine.” For someone who was about to finally have sex, he sure could be a bit happier, the asshole. Levi settled on top of Eren, snug between his thighs, and Eren had to fight to not reach down and slide his hands along that muscular back.

He felt Levi’s solid weight on top of him, felt Levi’s hand slide along his ass and Levi’s cock press against him and then-

-then it was the familiar madness, the deep darkness rushing forward with all emotion yet none at all, the need to protect, the need to rend, the need for blood and death and-

-and he was pressed against the headboard while a very confused and angry Levi stared at him. “What the *hell*?” He pressed his hand against the mattress where Eren had been lying before, where there were deep rivets torn into the material. “Just how fucked up are you?”

Eren stared at the damage his claws had done and shivered, feeling a coldness that sunk into his bones. What had he done? *Why* had he done it? The… the ‘madness’ only came out when something endangered his loved ones, when Mikasa was in trouble. Why had it happened now, when he was with Levi? “I… I don’t….” He couldn’t stop shivering.

“If you didn’t want to fuck you could have just said ‘no’, dammit, and not ruin my damn bed,” Levi shouted. “Like a fucking cat you are, with those shitty claws!” He jerked his hand threw his hair and punched the mattress, causing bedding to fly up into the air. “How am I going to sleep tonight?”

“So-sorry.” Eren’s teeth were chattering from the shock. Mikasa – he needed Mikasa. She would know what to do. He forced himself to move.

Levi finally seemed to notice him and cursed some more. “Where the hell are you going? You don’t just destroy my bed and leave!” He attempted to snatch at Eren, but just missed him. “Hey, are you all right?”

“Mi-kasa.” Eren grabbed his clothes off of the floor and raced for the door, unconcerned that he was naked. His sister – he needed his sister.

“Hey! Get back here!” Levi yelled as he followed, but Eren was faster and managed to get out the door first. “You’re naked, you shit!”

Several people turned to stare at him as he burst out into the hallway, which didn’t slow Eren down at all; he’d been through much worse in his long life than a bit of impromptu streaking. He went far enough to ensure that Levi wasn’t following him before stopping to pull on his shirt and pants, hampered by how much his body was still shaking. Once he was more or less decently attired, he forced himself onward to the common room in hopes of finding Mikasa returned from her date.

There were several odd looks sent his way as he entered the large area, and he didn’t see his sister anywhere. As he neared her bed, a familiar voice cried out his name. “Eren! What is going on?” Armin wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him toward their bunk-bed. “I heard this crazy story about you running around naked?”

“I ne-need Mikasa,” he told his friend as he buried his face against Armin’s neck.

Armin’s arm tightened around him and a few seconds later he was pushed down onto his friend’s bed. “Okay, I’ll get her. She’ll be here soon.” Blankets that smelled like Armin were wrapped around him; Eren breathed in deep and felt some of the awful tension inside of him ebb away, but not enough to stop the shivering. “I’ll be back in a minute, okay?”

“’kay.” He closed his eyes and curled up on the bed. All around him were hushed voices, and he could hear Armin talking to Daz about something. Soon enough, Armin returned and lay down next to him on the bed.

“She’ll be here soon, I promise. Then you can tell us both what happened.” Armin rubbed his hands along Eren’s back.

“Th-ank you.” It would be okay now. Armin and Mikasa would make it okay. Eren let out a slow breath and tried not to think of how he could still smell Levi on his skin.

*******

Somehow, people seemed to know better and scurried to get out of Mikasa’s way, clearing a path for her to reach the common room shared by the newest recruits as quickly as possible at a ‘human’ pace. She struggled to maintain that important façade, to not run down the hallways at full speed in an effort to reach her brother as quickly as possible and find out what had gone so wrong. ‘Cold’ was the code word between her and Armin whenever Eren lost himself in his… more ‘animalistic’ side and came back to himself shivering and confused – which usually happened when the damn vampires had him and Mikasa cornered somewhere. What had happened to trigger it when Mikasa was away? Why were things so quiet at headquarters if Armin had been in danger?

Finally reaching the shared quarters, she nearly tore through the cavernous room in search of Eren, for a moment wondering if Armin had him sequestered somewhere else for everyone’s safety. Yet she could pick up his scent and soon caught sight of them curled up on Armin’s bed. Eren was wrapped up in blankets with only his tangled hair left exposed, while Armin was curled up around him as if to help provide heat.

“Eren!”

Armin looked up as she nearly flung herself onto the bed and reached out to give her a hug, Eren cradled between them. “He’s… he’s mostly okay,” he whispered as he shifted back enough so she could join them on the narrow bed.

“Eren?” Mikasa lifted the edge of the blankets and slid beneath them, startled to find her brother still shivering. “What happened?”

He stared back at her with eyes so bright that she half-expected the glow to cast shadows onto his face, his fangs partially extended when he spoke. “I... I don’t know.” He nestled closer to her as if grateful for her warmth and presence, his head tucking beneath her chin. “It’s… Levi was there… and it was good… felt good… wanted it… wanted *him*… and then it… happened.” He shivered violently for a moment and then slowly began to relax against her. “Just… too much….” He let out a trembling breath as the shivering slowly eased. “Came to and… had clawed things up, so I ran.”

Mikasa could smell the Short Bastard on Eren, could smell sweat, lubricant and desire, but she didn’t smell blood so she assumed that the captain wasn’t one of those ‘things’. “It’s okay, Eren.”

“Uhm, he left in a bit of a hurry.” Armin sounded rather amused as he pressed against Eren’s back. “So much so that… well, there’s talk about what a nice ass he has, I’m afraid.”

Mikasa grit her teeth against the beginning of a growl and clutched at Eren, who was mumbling an apology. One thing at a time. She’d deal with one thing at a time. “The short bastard wasn’t forcing you, right?” It didn’t sound like it, but she wanted to be perfectly clear about what had set off Eren’s… well, what had set him off.

“No.” He sounded on the verge of falling asleep, but the answer came through certain enough.

“Okay.” She pressed a kiss against the top of his head and held him until he finally gave in to the exhaustion.

“So, what do you think that was all about,” Armin asked, slipping into the German that they’d taught him.

She let out a weary sigh and held Eren tighter against her. “You just had to tell him to try his hand at a relationship, didn’t you?” Despite her best efforts, a hint of venom crept into her voice.

Armin raised up his head to look at her for a few seconds. “I really do think it’s for the best, you know. Do you want him to keep sleeping around with strangers? Sooner or later he’s going to run into someone powerful enough to cause us problems.”

It wasn’t anything that they hadn’t discussed – no, complained about – before. She saw the logic in it, she just…. “It may be that we didn’t think this through.” She stroked her fingers through her brother’s unruly hair and smiled a little at the way the strands refused to settle. “When Eren cares, *truly* cares….” She closed her eyes for a moment and rested her cheek against the top of his head. What would her life be like if he hadn’t been there for her all those years ago?

Armin was quiet for a couple of minutes as if thinking over what she’d just said. “So you believe that tonight… but Captain Ackerman wasn’t in any danger, was he?”

“There’s always a risk when we….” Mikasa felt her cheeks heat up. “It’s not much, but we do have to make sure we’re in full control during moments like that. That we don’t claw or bite, that we don’t use our full strength. I think… I think that’s why in part that Eren’s never cared for anyone he’s slept with, because it’s easier to stay detached that way.” She knew it was in part why she left the ones she cared too much about at that point. “Maybe something got tripped up inside of him, that ‘too much’ he was talking about and it set off… well, it set him off. From the little he said, he didn’t hurt the captain.”

There was a heavy sigh from Armin as he stretched out his arm to cover her and Eren. “I just wanted him to be more serious about his fuckbuddies for once, not to… not *this*.” He smacked his head against the bed a couple of times, which Eren continued slept through. “With Captain Ackerman of all people?”

It was as bad as the whole trio situation – Eren certainly did know how to pick them, Mikasa thought. “He could do so much better.” Even Reiner and Bertolt had treated him with more respect than the Short Bastard had ever shown him, before… well, before revealing what they truly were.

They all laid together squeezed onto the bed while Eren slept, seeming dead to the world; she knew that the lack of proper blood was wearing on him, so between that and the emotional trauma earlier she expected him to sleep longer than normal. After some time had passed, she spoke again, startling a dozing Armin. “Did you get the thing I asked about?”

“Huh?” Armin shifted about a little and propped up his head. “Oh, yeah, it’s in the lab – Captain Hange was curious about it but I just said that I needed it for a project. Do you need me to go get it?”

“No, I’ll do it later. Thank you.” She smiled in anticipation and snuggled closer to Eren.

“Just… just don’t leave too much of a mess for us to clean up, all right?”

Mikasa didn’t say anything since she didn’t want to make any promises.

*******

Annie leaned against the wall in the rec room and watched her ‘fellow’ MPs interact, hopelessly bored yet all too aware that she needed to ensure that they didn’t have another ‘Marlo’ on their hands. He’d been quiet since assigned the extra shifts, but she still wanted to keep an eye on him, and to make sure that no one else was paying attention to things that were best left alone. Besides, it wasn’t as if she’d be stuck with babysitting duty for much longer; just a few more nights of putting up with these annoying infants and then she’d be free.

Speaking of annoying infants… Hitch was in the middle of a small group, as usual, taunting one of the newer recruits about some bit of nonsense or another. Really, there was so much potential there in the young woman, and she wasted it by being incredibly petty. Annie’s gaze flickered about the room, quickly assessing and dismissing each of the MPs as possible threats, an exercise that had been ingrained into her long ago by her father.

Once she was certain that the room was relatively secure, she mentally went over the plans for the night; Reiner and Bertolt would be in charge of shifting the Mutates again while feeding, and she had a few tracks to cover as well. The Engineers were becoming a problem… but at least they helped to feed the Mutates. Not much longer, Annie reminded herself. Things were coming together, which was what mattered the most. After so many years, so much effort, they finally had Eren cornered and in their grasp. Just a few more nights and he’d finally be caught.

An image of earnest blue eyes and a tremulous smile flashed through her mind for a moment, almost causing her to hiss in response. She wouldn’t allow herself to be distracted by Eren’s little stray, to believe anything he said – there was only one option here, one path to take and that was dragging Eren kicking and screaming back to the Elder.

“Oh ho! Look what we have here! Someone cleans up real pretty, doesn’t he?”

“Go to hell, Hitch, I’m not in the mood for you right now.”

It wasn’t so much the loud voices that cut through Annie’s dark thoughts just then, but the trace of an elusive scent. She pushed away from the wall and toward the small crowd, toward her partner and the girl’s cronies and a tall young man who was dressed rather nicely in black pants and a black coat over a white shirt – Jean Kirstein, if she remembered correctly. The one who had pissed off Commander Dok. In case she was right about the scent, she pulled out her comm and sent a quick text to Bertolt to get his ass to the room, *now*.

Hitch made a rude gesture with her left hand, her manicured nails flashing bright through the air as her eyes narrowed at Jean. “Now now, no need to get nasty with me just because it looks like you got stood up. That’s what happens when you go dating Winger trash.”

Annie inhaled sharply – that *had* to be Mikasa’s scent she was picking up from the boy. “Winger? He’s dating someone from the Corps?”

Hitch sent her a pitying look before returning her cruel gaze back to Jean, the obvious target of choice – she’d learned the hard way that Annie was *not* to be taken lightly. “If you bothered to take your nose out of a book long enough to talk to the rest of us, you’d know that Jean here as well as his partner have been hanging out with a pair of Winger whores.”

“They’re not whores! Mikasa is-“

“Oh really? Then why are you back so early?” Hitch laughed in the face of Jean’s rage, while Annie was thankful for the many years of experience which allowed her to maintain her own impassive expression upon hearing *that* name. “Don’t tell me that Connie’s having better luck in getting laid than you!”

It took both Amir and Pietr to hold Jean back when he lunged at Hitch, and all the while Annie’s partner merely laughed in the face of Jean’s anger. “Oh, did I hit a sore spot?” While she was busy taunting the boy, Bertolt and Reiner strolled into the room.

“You’re being even more of a bitch than usual, which is saying something,” Annie told her partner, which made Hitch pout in an exaggerated manner. “And you, you’re a fool for letting her get to you like that.” She shoved Jean back a good foot or two away from the manipulative child and gave him a cold look. “What’s the big deal about being stood up on a date?” She had to force herself to remain calm when she could smell Mikasa on him; it helped to have Reiner and Bertolt here with her to ground her.

Jean’s heartbeat raced and blood flushed his cheeks, but he took a few deep breaths before he spoke. “She didn’t- I wasn’t stood up, okay? She got some weird text from a friend about her brother and she had to leave.”

“Ooh, as if that doesn’t sound like some cheap excuse to ditch your ass to me!”

“Listen, you-“

This time it was Reiner and Bertolt who separated the two squalling brats, Bertolt apologizing to Hitch the entire time he held her back and Reiner rolling his eyes as if he had something better to do. Annie noticed how he dipped his neck to sniffed at Jean, the motion so quick that she doubted anyone but a vampire would catch it, and the brief flare of red in his eyes. “Do you both want to get into trouble with Commander Dok for fighting?”

Reiner’s question seemed to settle the idiots for the moment; Hitch went back to being petulant while Jean took to glaring at everyone. “Good, then start acting your ages.”

“I was just pointing out-“

“Mikasa didn’t ditch me,” Jean yelled, cutting over Hitch’s childish whine while he reached into his jacket. “See, she really did get a text!”

Bertolt was quick to snatch it from the boy’s hand, his expression apologetic even as his green eyes were sharp. “Hmm, it’s a bit weird but yeah, it’s to this ‘Mikasa’.” His brow became furrowed as he handed back the device. “Why did they send it to you? Or did you steal her ‘pad?”

Jean’s expression darkened while he tucked back the datapad. “She won’t use one of her own – something about people hacking hers in the past.” Beside Annie, Reiner stiffened but otherwise didn’t say anything. “So I guess it’s serious about her brother if her friend feels the need to track down me down in order to send something – she sure as hell acted like it was, since once she read it she was out of there.”

They allowed Bertolt to continue speaking, since he was the ‘friendliest’ out of the three of them. “Uhm, if it were my family, I’d be concerned.” He patted Hitch on the shoulder before giving her a gentle shove aside and smiled at Jean. “She probably really cares about him. Don’t be too upset with her.”

That seemed to deflate some of the anger that Jean was feeling; his shoulders slumped forward and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I get the impression that he’s basically all the family she has left, and they joined the Corps together.” He let out a slow breath. “They both report to Captain Ackerman, you know?” That got the attention of the small crowd that had gathered around them. “Mikasa’s always sore from training with his private squad, and I always see her brother with that guy. He must be pretty good if he reports directly to Ackerman, but maybe he got hurt training today or something.”

“Or maybe-“

“Enough,” Annie hissed at her partner. “Don’t go stirring up shit when Commander Dok is only too happy to hand out extra shifts,” she warned. “Because I will *not* be pleased if it happens to us.” She gave the girl a cold stare until Hitch dropped her gaze and shuffled away, her group of friends falling in line around her. That problem dealt with, she directed a sneer toward Jean. “And don’t come crying here with your problems about a Winger.”

“I didn’t-“

“I don’t care.” Annie flicked her fingers at him as if dismissing something miniscule. “Now go away before the sight of you ticks off Commander Dok.”

He looked as if he wanted to argue with her or do even something stupider, his face becoming flushed and his hands clenching into fists, but Reiner took a step behind her and that seemed to make the idiot child think twice about taking her on. Mumbling imprecations beneath his breath, he stormed past them toward the sleeping quarters, and Annie let him go. “I’m tired of dealing with morons,” she announced to the room before walking away herself.

She found a quiet corner to settle in far away from the rec room, and after about ten minutes the other two showed up, with Reiner leading the way. “Why the *hell* is Mikasa hanging around with a human,” Reiner growled out.

“Yes, their little stray aside, I thought we’d broken her of that nasty habit a couple of centuries ago.” Annie finished cleaning beneath her claws and tapped them together twice before sheathing them. “Rather interesting that this one is an MP, don’t you think?”

Bertolt gulped in a lungful of air before he spoke. “You think it has something to do with us?”

“I ‘think’ Mikasa would do an awful lot when it comes to us and her precious brother.” Annie scowled for a moment as her thoughts drifted back to that terrible night so long ago. “It’s not a coincidence, but it might be something we can turn into our favor.” The trouble with dear old Mikasa was that she never was as good at controlling her emotions as she liked to think she was – you just had to know where the vulnerable points were to strike, and Annie had lots of experience with that over the years. Pushing aside all thoughts of the sister for now, she refocused on what was important. “What did the message say?”

“It was brief and in code – Eren’s name and the German word for cold.” Bertolt shrugged, a silent apology for not having a better answer.

It was rather perplexing, but they knew that something was wrong because of Mikasa’s reaction. “Perhaps he attacked someone. He’s always been temperamental.”

Reiner’s laugh was more bitter than amused. “That’s one way of putting it.” He glanced at Bertolt before focusing on Annie. “That one captain – Ackerman. He got a bit possessive of Eren when we fought him the one time.”

“Yes, he was really determined when he came after me.” Bertolt rubbed his right arm as if it were sore. “He’s really talented for a human. I also saw him with Eren at the park.”

“He’s supposed to be one of their best.” Perhaps that’s why they had assigned Eren and Mikasa to the man’s squad… but she recalled seeing the human scouring through the dome a few weeks ago, intent on any groups of kids – and those with dark hair in particular. She’d worried that maybe the Corps had been looking for the three of them and even arranged to bump into Captain Ackerman to gage his reaction, only to be confused when he basically ignored her after getting a good look. That meant that he’d been fixated on a certain someone.

“Something’s going on here, and it has to do with Eren.”

“When doesn’t it,” Reiner sighed. A warning glare from her made him stand up straight and pay attention.

“Get the Mutates settled in for the night,” she ordered the boys as she pushed away from the wall. “Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.”

Bertolt reached out to wrap a hand around her left arm, a confused look on his face. “Another attack so soon? What’s the goal of this one?”

She smiled up at him as she gently brushed aside his hand. “I believe it’s time to give Eren some incentive.”

*******

Kicking his door shut behind him, Levi wrenched at the sleeves of his jacket to pull it off, uncaring about any damage to the material; he was tired, he was pissed off, and he was beyond frustrated. Where the *hell* were the damn Malforms when he desperately wanted to chop something into bits and watch it melt into puddles of foul-smelling goo? Was that too much to ask for after the past few days? The past few hours? If it wasn’t bad enough to come *so close* to sex in… he wasn’t going to think how long, only to have that shitty brat spaz out on him *and* claw the shit out of his mattress, he’d had to put up with the snickering and snide comments of a good third of the people he’d walked past thanks to Eren’s inspired little dash from his room. He didn’t care what people thought about him, but if he heard one more remark about ‘tapping it a little young, isn’t he?’ then Erwin was about to lose a significant amount of his Corps….

At least he was done for the night – finished with the damn patrol and unwilling to put up with anyone’s bullshit for the next nine hours or so. He’d flat out told Erwin and Hange to bother him on the pain of death – a long, drawn out death at that – and they’d must have heard the rumors because for once they merely shut up and left him alone.

He’d just wrestled out of his jacket and gauntlet when there was a rapid knock on his door, giving him hope that perhaps the night wouldn’t end without a homicide or two. When he realized that he was running his left hand through his hair just in case it was Eren coming back to explain what the *hell* that crazy shit had been about earlier, he mentally cursed himself while opening the door – and then cursed out loud when he saw the brat’s sister standing there with some sort of farming implement in her hand. “Go the *fuck* away,” he snarled while slamming the door shut,” – or attempted to, but the bitch was too fast and managed to shove the wooden handle of the damn thing she was carrying in the way before it closed.

Pushing into the room with the wooden handle held out as if a weapon, Mikasa charged forward, her eyes glowing golden and her fangs on display. “*You*,” she declared, loud and full of disdain as if his presence was offensive.

“Yeah, me.” Wishing he’d kept his blades on for this shit, Levi folded his arms over his chest and faced down the bitch. “So what, you come here to finish trashing my place? Eren didn’t do a good enough job so he sent you?” He motioned to the... the shovel? what the hell? in her hand and resumed glaring. “I’m not impressed considering the damage he did all on his own.” Really, couldn’t Eren man up and come here himself?

Mikasa appeared to take a few deep breaths, her clawed hands clenching and unclenching a few times around the handle of the shovel. “I came here to talk, but by all means, I can inflict some damage first if you want.” She hefted the shovel in a threatening manner for a few seconds. “Now, are you going to listen or do I have to beat some manners into you first?”

Levi took a step forward, his hands falling to his sides and balling into fists. “I’d like to see you try, Sunshine. Even your twink of a bro-“

The shovel moved so fast he didn’t even see it come at him, only that it stopped within a hair’s breadth of his eyes, its passage causing his bangs to fan out and then settle against his forehead. “You see, *that* right there is part of why we’re having this conversation,” Mikasa said, her voice the lowest that he’d ever heard, a deep, rumbling growl and her eyes a pure, molten gold. “You are going to shut up and *listen* to me or I swear I will eviscerate you with the dull end of this fucking shovel.”

Something told him that she wasn’t exaggerating, so despite the urge to tell her where to put the damn shovel, Levi once again folded his arms across his chest and met her glare with his own level gaze.

Seeing that she had his attention, she shifted back a little and lowered the shovel to the floor, yet kept her body tense enough to move quickly if he tried anything. “You don’t have a clue, do you? What that word means, among other things.” Scorn practically dripped from her words – hell, from her entire being.

Taking that as a sign that he could talk, Levi rolled his eyes and snorted once. “Which word? You mean ‘twink’?” When her glare went up an even more potent notch, he fought the urge to sigh in exasperation. “Something about young guys – all I care about is it pisses off your brother, so it works for me.”

“It ‘pisses’ him off because it’s an insult!” Mikasa slammed the butt of the shovel into the floor hard enough to make Levi flinch. “Do you know how often we’d hear it back… back then? How people would look at him when they’d call him that? Like a fucking piece of meat, something for them to use and pass around, something to be broken and sold.” She hissed and bared her fangs at him, just like a furious cat. “They took something and denigrated it even more, because they didn’t want him to mean anything more than a pair of shoes or blanket, and here you are taking delight in calling him it!”

Levi stared at her, at the fury and hurt that radiated from her with every word and motion; he had wondered why Ymir hadn’t joined in on the new nickname after laughing at it, and why Eren had rushed through his explanation as if doing his best to avoid the whole thing. “I didn’t know.”

“No, you were too happy getting your own back.” Mikasa let out a slow breath as if doing her best to control her temper, her eyes still so bright but her teeth not quite so sharp. “Look, Eren told me that he was going to give you a few days to get over things and then explain it better, but it’s still too much. I won’t stand for it anymore.”

As if it mattered after today. Levi clicked his tongue and took a few steps back so he could sit on the edge of his desk. “I doubt there’s going to be a problem – pretty sure your brother’s going to be avoiding me from now on.” He grimaced at the trace of bitterness that he couldn’t quite mask.

Mikasa looked upward at the ceiling for some reason and shook her head. “Have you wondered about this yet?” She held up the shovel for a moment.

“Yeah, it’s not my first choice for a murder weapon, but thought maybe you were into multi-tasking or something.” Levi rubbed at his left shoulder, which felt a little stiff from wearing the gauntlet for most of a day. “That or you’re as bugshit crazy as your brother.”

That caused those eyes to flash a little brighter for a moment before Mikasa took another deep breath; it was almost amusing to see her try to remain calm. “Back when I was… well, when I was young, there was this thing called a ‘shovel talk’.”

“If it’s anything like the ‘metal bar talk’ when I was a kid, I’d rather skip the beating, thank you.”

Mikasa barred her once again sharp teeth at him. “Shut up unless you want to bleed out.”

All right, time for a history lesson, Levi told himself while he glared at the bitch.

Once more forcing herself to be composed, Mikasa held the shovel in a horizontal fashion. “As I was saying – the ‘shovel talk’ is when someone who cares deeply for another, be it a friend or a family member, approaches the person they’re romantically seeing and has a talk with them. The purpose of that talk is to basically say that they have very high hopes that said person will treat their loved one with the utmost respect and would never, ever do anything to foolishly break their heart.” She stared intently at Levi while she spoke. “Things can happen in a relationship, but it’s the intent that matters, and that person will do their best to always honor and treat fairly the other, or….”

“Or….” This was fucking ridiculous.

“Or I will use this shovel to break every single bone in your body to dust, pulverize your organs to liquid and then scoop your remains into the sewer,” Mikasa promised him as she held his gaze. “And that’s *after* your vocal cords have frayed from screaming in agony from me flaying off your skin.” She swung the shovel with a surprising amount of grace to point the metal end toward him. “Do anything to deliberately hurt Eren, and I will carry through with all of that. Do anything through your stupidity again to hurt Eren, and I will carry through with all of that.” She smiled as spoke, the expression chilling enough to make Levi believe every word she said. “I’ve even planned out where I’ll start on you first.”

He stared at her for several seconds before rubbing his hands over his face. “This is… *such* a fucked up conversation for me, which is saying something.” Shovel talk. Hange would be *delighted* to hear about this. Erwin probably wouldn’t stop laughing for days. “Again, why the hell does it matter when your brother was so desperate to get away from me he showed half the Corps his bare ass?”

The question seemed to deflate some of Mikasa’s psycho-ness, causing her to lean against the propped up shovel. “Maybe because he’s not really upset with you?” She tucked back a lock of hair falling onto her face while Levi stared on in confusion. “Look, Eren’s… it’s difficult to explain.”

“Don’t stop now,” he snapped at her. “You’ve been doing a stellar job up to now with all of this shit.”

She resumed glaring at him but at least started talking again. “Eren’s always been… excessive about the people he really cares about, like his family.” A faint blush spread across her cheeks, lending her some much needed color, and she let go of her death-grip on the shovel to fuss with her scarf while she talked. “And it seems… well, it seems that’s been extended to you.”

It took a few seconds for that to make sense. “So what, he shredded my bed and ran off just as we were starting to fuck because he *likes* me?” Yeah, that sounded just as ridiculous spoken aloud as it did in his head. “Nice try.”

“It’s just sinking in to him, okay?” Mikasa looked ready to use the shovel to smack him over the head. “Part of him is realizing that he cares about you faster than the rest! You could try taking things a little slower than trying to fuck my brother so quickly!”

“I don’t see him compl- well, he was all for it before today,” Levi muttered. Dammit, they’d been so close, too.

Mikasa mumbled something beneath her breath while she closed her eyes, speaking in a swift cadence. When she was done, she stabbed a clawed finger in Levi’s direction. “Give him a little space, all right? Stop calling him awful names, show some damn respect and let him figure one or two things out if you want more than his ass.”

“And if that’s all that I want?”

She hefted the shovel in a clearly threatening manner. “Then I’ll be back with this.” She didn’t say anything else after that, but really, she’d said more than enough on the topic. To think Levi had believed that his end would come from a fucking Malform, not a damn gardening implement.

He watched her leave and had to wonder what shitty rumor was going to start now, before deciding to head over to Hange’s lab to see if the lunatic had any more alcohol stashed away. There was no way in hell he was going to think about Mikasa’s ultimatum while sober.

********

Hange was in the middle of reviewing Petra’s results when she heard the door to the lab open; considering how late it was, she was at first shocked that someone was paying her a visit, and then doubly shocked to see that it was Levi. “Uhm, if this is another ploy to get me out of here to clean up-“

“Where’s the alcohol?” When she stared at him in confusion, Levi hauled a stool over to her workstation and sat down, a truly ferocious glare on his face. “I don’t want to put up with any of your shit until I have some alcohol in me.”

“Oh-kay.” Well, it looked as if the research could wait until later – or even tomorrow. Taking in Levi’s less than immaculate appearance – his half undone shirt, tousled hair and missing weapons – Hange hurried from her chair and went over to the filing cabinet where she hid the liquor. She returned back to the table with a bottle of vodka and two clean beakers, only to have Levi snatch the bottle from her as soon as she came near. “Huh, guess I need one for me then.” She went back to the cabinet for another bottle.

By the time she returned, Levi had gone through about a fourth of the bottle. “So, you wanna tell me what the hell’s gotten into-“

“Shut it.” Levi set the bottle down on the table and wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m going to tell you what someone told me earlier tonight – keep quiet or I’ll gut you in the most painful manner imaginable.”

It sounded like someone had one hell of a fun night so far, and that was *after* having Eren run naked from his room. Hange made a big show of pressing her lips together and motioning the grouchy bastard to continue with whatever the hell he was here for, other than his usual abuse.

He gave her a dirty look for a few seconds before picking up the bottle again yet didn’t drink. “So, the lovely psychotic Mikasa came to visit me, with a *fucking* shovel.”

Ah, that explained Armin’s little surprise that morning. Hange bit back on a laugh and had to make a show of choking down some vodka when Levi’s grey eyes narrowed in suspicion. She smiled around the rim of the beaker and continued to say *nothing*.

Clearly he wasn’t buying it. “Yeah, from now on, you crazy bitch, anytime one of those three show up with farming tools, give me a fucking warning, will you.” He clicked his tongue in annoyance and paused to take a sip of vodka. “Apparently, it’s some old tradition where a psycho sister threatens the guy fucking her brother or something with a shovel – the finer points were lost on me other than ‘treat him right or I’ll pulverize your organs’.”

Hange couldn’t help it, she had to set the beaker aside as she burst out laughing. “Oh… I wish I could have seen that!” Someone other than her taking Levi to task over how he treated someone? *Finally*.

“I’ll gladly get a shovel and reenact it on your ass,” Levi groused. “What did I say about keeping your shitty mouth shut?”

“Then why did you bother coming here, hmm?” Hange set her elbows on the counter and rested her chin on her hands. “Come on, what do you really want, other than the alcohol?”

For a few seconds she was worried that he was going to throw the bottle at her, and then he sighed and set it back down. “Because Mikasa told me I could leave Eren alone or I could treat him right.” He picked at the bottle’s label with one of the most forlorn expressions on his face that Hange had ever seen.

She was tempted to swoop on in and give him a hug… and remembered that this was *Levi* and decided that she’d rather keep her arms and her spleen a little longer. When the silence spun out to an uncomfortable amount of time, she took a shot of vodka for courage and then cleared her throat. “Look, Sweetie, what do you want? Is it to leave Eren alone and go back to being a miserable bastard?” When Levi gave her an evil look for the question, she sighed and dared to reach over to grasp his left hand, utterly determined that now was the time to have ‘the talk’.

“You know, it’s not your fault, what happened to Isabel and Farlan.” When he made to pull away, his expression utterly closed off, she held on tight. “Listen to me for a minute, okay? They came along with you out of Tartarus and they chose to stay in the Corps. They loved the freedom of the wild so much… don’t diminish what they were to you by shutting everyone out.”

He stared off at nothing for about a minute and shook his head. “They’d still be-“

“Don’t go down that road,” she admonished him. “You know as well as I do what your chances were in Tartarus.” She waited until he looked at him and then stared him down. “What, do you begrudge your time in the Corps? Do you wish you were dead like them?”

“…no.” He shook his head again and pulled his hand free. “No, I want to live.”

“Then why do you insist on being so miserable? If Mikasa’s threatening you with a… a shovel of all things, then she must think that you have a chance with Eren.” Hange gave him a smile that had nothing to do with amusement. “So be a mature adult for once in your damn life and don’t fuck this up, yes?”

Levi continued to gaze at her levelly for several seconds before he snorted in derision. “You just want us together so you can keep asking your perverted questions.”

“Busted!” She clapped her hands together and laughed. “Eren’s so *cute* when he’s flustered, but I’m sure you know that already.” She grinned as she poured herself more vodka, deciding to not push it too much more; if she get too touchy-feely or went on too long about the past then he’d be stubborn just to piss her off. Yet she knew that he liked Eren and he wouldn’t be here if he didn’t want her to talk him into the relationship somehow. “But I do care about you, Sweetie, and you’re so much less grouchy when you’re getting some.” She paused to think about that. “Well, a bit less grouchy.”

“Very funny.” He snorted again but a smile hovered on his lips while he toyed with the vodka bottle. “Let’s hope it helps with Mikasa, then.”

“Hmm, they do say that endorphins-“

“No more talking,” Levi ordered before he raised the bottle to his lips.

Sometimes the bastard had some good ideas.

*******

The whispers and snide remarks were even worse than they had been yesterday, causing Eren to grit his teeth and do his best to pretend that he couldn’t hear the hushed voices. If he wasn’t so nervous about seeing Levi he’d have waited and gone out with Mikasa and Armin, but….

He didn’t remember too much about last night, he never did when he had one of his… ‘spells’, but he recalled enough to know that Levi must have been furious over him running away like that, and it didn’t help that Mikasa had come back late last night smelling of the man. She promised Eren that she hadn’t harmed Levi, but he’d rather make sure of that fact himself.

He reached Levi’s quarters and ignored the barely stifled sniggering that came from behind him as he knocked on the door. Considering the early hour, he found it somewhat alarming when there was no answer – was Levi already up and called away? Just what did Mikasa consider ‘harm’? He was knocking on the door again when it opened to reveal a very surly Levi dressed in a rumpled grey robe, his black hair sticking up in all directions and the dark circles beneath his eyes even more pronounced than usual.

“Knock again and I’m breaking your fucking hand.”

“Ah, good morning?”

“Fuck no it isn’t.” Levi reached out to latch onto Eren’s jacket and pulled him into the room. “At least you’re wearing clothes this time.”

“Yeah I… I figured everyone saw enough yesterday.” Eren felt his cheeks heat up at the thought and ducked his head. “Uhm, I’m sorry about that.”

Levi waved aside the weak apology while he shuffled over to his desk, where a pot of tea was brewing. “What, for showing your ass to half the Corps? Don’t do it again or I’ll smack you so hard you’ll shit teeth for a week.” He pointed to the chair in front of the desk with a clear intent for Eren to sit down.

Well, that was a new threat. Eren rubbed his jaw as if he could already feel the punch to it and sighed – of course the bastard couldn’t make this easy, could he? “No – not that I intend to moon everyone again, but I mean I’m sorry for… well, for freaking out on you like that.”

On his way to sit down on the other side of the desk, Levi grunted once and changed course, to come over and stand in front of Eren. He reached out to thread his fingers through Eren’s hair, his touch gentle for once, and used the hold to urge Eren back onto his feet. As soon as they both were standing, Eren found himself soundly kissed.

Levi’s mouth was insistent upon his, his tongue a slight pressure against his lips that sought but didn’t demand entrance inside. Eren was just as eager to join in, to part his lips and run his hands along Levi’s chest even as a small bit of him waited for that slip of control, for the madness to return. Yet all that happened was a slow burn of desire, the joy of feeling Levi press against him and hold him close.

Just when his hand had slipped beneath the soft material of Levi’s robe to stroke the hard smoothness of his chest, the bastard had to pull away. Grey eyes narrowed at Eren’s frustrated whine, appearing much too pleased just then, and Levi pushed him back into the chair. “So, you still freaking out?”

“No, I’m wondering why I put up with an asshole like you,” Eren complained as he clutched at his thighs. How was it that Levi could provoke such extreme emotions from him like that?

There was a harsh yank on his hair for a moment before Levi left to go settle behind the desk. “Who’s the asshole who tore up my bed?”

“Yeah, I said I was sorry about that.” Eren still didn’t know what had brought the whole episode on and hoped there wouldn’t be a repeat of it. “Maybe we should use handcuffs next time….”

“Maybe.” Levi gave him an odd look before he directed his attention to the tea pot and poured two cups. “So Hange thinks that Petra will wake up today.”

“That’s good.” Then Eren remembered about Olou. “I guess.” He wondered how she’d take the news of losing her partner like that. “What’s on the agenda for the day?”

“Not food anytime soon after the night drinking with Hange.” Levi grimaced before handing over a cup of tea to Eren. “After this I’ll get ready and we’ll go practice some more with Gunther, and then I have to meet up with Erwin and tag along with him as he visits Pixis.”

Eren took a sip of tea and moaned in appreciation for a moment. “Any chance of me coming with you for that?” He gave Levi a hopeful look and sighed when he was given a flat stare in return. “Come on, I’m bored silly staying here all the time.”

“At least you’re not being attacked by vampires, so count your blessings. Now drink your tea, which you’re also supposed to be thankful for, and be prepared to get your ass kicked. I’m really pissed off about that bed.” Levi’s expression turned the slightest big smug as he leaned back in his chair, his tea cup held cradled against his chest.

“Oh, you *wish*,” Eren informed the delusional bastard. “How about we make a bet? Whoever has the most takedowns today gets a massage tonight?”

Levi sipped his tea while he considered it. “I catch you using your claws on me during practice and I’ll fucking pull those suckers.”

“Deal.” Eren leaned back and enjoyed his tea while he thought about his massage.

*******

“And that ties us up.” Eren grinned down at Levi, his hair framing his face and making his eyes appear all the more brighter because of its darkness.

Lying flat on his back with Eren settled on his lap, Levi spent a few more seconds than he should enjoying the moment. Despite a lingering hangover, the practice was turning out to be fun – when you did something day after day for the purpose of staying alive, having even a silly goal such as winning a massage made a big difference. It would feel so great after wearing the damn gauntlet all day….

“That doesn’t mean anything until the final count,” he warned the cocky brat and gave his ass a nice hard pat to get him off of him. Eren no longer yelped at being smacked but there was still a hint of red on his cheeks when he jumped up.

“Am I to take it that spanking is an alternative method to fighting vampires and Malforms, Sir?” Erd sounded perfectly respectful, but he couldn’t quite keep a straight face while he asked the question.

Levi dusted off his gloves after he stood up. “I don’t know, what do you think, brat?”

Eren was busy climbing back up on the wall at the moment, but paused to shake his head. “I’d like to say give it a try, but Annie’d rip off your arm in two seconds. Best stick with chopping off their heads.”

“Some people have all of the fun.” Erd joined Levi in the center of the room, where they did their best to track Eren’s eccentric crawl pattern over the walls and ceiling in order to anticipate where he’d leap from next.

His concentration so focused on Eren, Levi let out a loud curse when the door to their ‘training’ room suddenly slammed open and Hange burst inside. “Dammit, why don’t you answer your fucking comm!”

“Because we’re training, you shitty glasses,” he shot back. “How do I-“

She didn’t give him a time to explain. “Malform attack! Southern gate! Ass in gear NOW!”

Levi paused only for a second while he realized the importance of those words and then he was in motion, racing toward where he’d set his blades aside for the practice session; Eren got there first and handed him his gear, a solemn expression on his face.

“I can-“

“*No*.” He didn’t give him any time to explain.

“But-“

“NO!” Levi finished clasping the belt around his waist and then grabbed onto Eren’s shirt to yank him forward. “They went after Mikasa last time demanding to know where you were. I’m not about to hand them over to you like a fucking present! Your ass is staying here – ask again and I’ll break your fucking legs, you hear me? Now stop wasting my time.”

Before he could let him go, Eren shoved forward to give him a quick, desperate kiss. “Be careful,” he breathed against Levi’s lips.

“Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone,” Levi shot back before forcing himself away, running for the door.

Once on the main floor, people were pouring toward the exits, rushing to get to the Southern Gate; Erwin must have called an ‘all hands’ for this emergency, every member of the Corps who weren’t already out on patrol. Levi couldn’t blame him – if the seal was breached, then the Malforms outside could get in, and then the dome would well and truly be fucked; fighting ones turned inside a dome were bad enough, but ‘wild’ Malforms were even worse, were ‘rabid’ from the lack of human blood and subsiding on the animals they hunted outside. Levi would rather fight a dozen dome Malforms than a wild Malform any day.

The Southern gate wasn’t too far from the Freedom Corps’ headquarters, which made him wonder what those shitty vampires were up to now; once outside on the streets, he took to rappelling to the gate, both out of speed and necessity. The streets were packed with people fleeing from the massacre and both Corps and Engineers rushing to aid the fighting, so much so that the only thing that could be heard were the sounds of screams and wires hitting into concrete. Levi gritted his teeth against the noise as he swung through the air, anger building in him as he noticed how the concentration of bodies on the ground start to increase the closer he got to the gate.

Hange swung in next to him and pointed to a clutch of Malforms climbing up the wall about half a block from the gate. “Engineers are holding the gate for now,” she shouted.

“For now.” He readied his blade and came in fast, hacking through one of the undead freaks’ neck and then pushing off of the wall so he could slice through another before they even had a chance to strike back. Erd and Hange took care of the rest, and they were on to the next set of targets. Unfortunately, there were more than enough for them to choose from at the moment and they quickly got separated.

If he’d thought the fight at the park had been bad enough, it was nothing compared to this – where had all of these bastards come from? Worse, they were the ‘improved’ version – faster and stronger – which meant that the Corps and the Engineers were taking on more damage than usual. Levi was holding his own, as were a few others – Erd, Hange, Mike and their personal squads – and Ymir was laughing while she tore through the Malforms. A few of the Engineers were doing an impressive job as well, especially a woman with blonde hair and glasses. She seemed to have caught on to the importance of immediately beheading anyone at risk of turning into a Malform.

In one of the hardest battles he’d ever fought, they kept driving toward the gate, cutting through the waves of Malforms at a cost; Levi had to risk dropping to the ground to take out a yet another fellow Corps, a new recruit assigned to Mike’s squad. He’d just flicked the blood from his blade and was about to launch a new wire when there was a line of fire along his lower back. Biting back on a gasp of pain, he spun around, blades swinging out to strike at the Malform that had just struck him, and cursed when he found the undead fuck looming over him. What the hell had it been in life? Some sort of giant? He shot out a rappelling dart so he could gain some air and wasn’t surprised when it followed him.

All the practice with Eren helped in dodging the bastard, and he managed to turn the tables after a nerve-wracking minute or two. Slicing through its neck felt satisfying as hell, but at that point his back was on fire and his hands trembled from exhaustion and pain. Looking for a ‘quiet’ place so he could slap on a pressure bandage, he cursed when he saw a pack of Malforms heading his way, probably drawn by the scent of blood. This just wasn’t his day.

Not waiting for them to corner him, he dove at them head first, spinning in the air with his blades lashing out. Two of them fell quickly, but he gained another wound while taking out the third and a blow to his head from the last one.

He blinked several times while hanging in the air, his vision marred by spots of darkness. Dammit, did he have a target on him or what? The shitty things had been after him with a vengeance ever since he’d arrived near the gate. He struggled to orient himself, to figure out which way he needed to swing so he could find a safe spot to catch his breath and tend to his wounds. Not the ground – never the ground. He needed to reach-

There was a dark blur coming at him from the above; at first he thought it was one of the dark spots moving and so didn’t react in time to avoid it. The blur hit him and shoved him into the wall, knocking the air out of him and pinning him against the hard concrete.

The hood of a black sweatshirt fell back enough to reveal blond hair and flat blue eyes set in an impassive face. The girl from the market leaned forward to sniff at Levi’s neck. “As I thought, you smell like him.”

He struggled to lift his right blade – the left one had been knocked from his hand when he slammed into the wall – but the undead bitch snatched at his wrist as he lifted it and squeezed until something broke. “You fucking – ungh!” He bit into his lip to keep from screaming.

“Yes, he’d like that about you.” A smile that was nothing more than a curve of pale lips formed on the vampire’s lips. “I want you to carry a message to Eren for me.”

Levi fought to unclench his teeth through the pain so he could tell the bitch to fuck off, but before he could stutter out anything, he saw a flash of white rushing forward and then there was only pain.

*******

Eren swung his blade down through the neck of yet another member of the Freedom Corps and watched dispassionately as the flesh began to disintegrate. Taking a step back away from the liquefying corpse, he continued his way through the stretchers filled with the wounded members of the 104th, checking to see which ones were in danger of turning. The medics had argued with him at first, until he’d kept them from being killed by the patient they’d been trying to save; they just weren’t used to dealing with victims of Malform turned by vampires.

He believed that he’d caught all of them, that the remaining patients should be fine as long as they received the proper medical care, and waited for the next wave of injured to arrive. The common room would be quiet tonight, with plenty of empty beds due to the wounded and dead. That Eren knew some of the people he’d seen today, had known those he’d brought the blade down upon… well, it was just a part of his life. Armin would be upset about Daz, though.

One of the small trucks that served as ambulances came barreling into the courtyard, so Eren shook himself from his dark thoughts and went to see if there were more people who could be saved or would need to be dealt with for the sake of everyone else. He was surprised when Captain Hange burst out of the back, her uniform covered with blood, and felt the breath get knocked out of him when Mikasa soon followed, carrying a limp body in her arms. A limp, bloody body that appeared a lot like Levi.

“I need someone to get- oh! Eren!” Captain Hange noticed him standing there and ran over to him, Mikasa right behind her. “I need you! Levi needs you!” She almost barreled into him as she yelled, her left hand latching onto his right shoulder; he had to drop the blade he was holding in order to keep from hurting her. The blood on her glove soaked into his shirt – it reeked of Malform and Levi. “We need to get to my lab, quickly!”

“What happened?” He allowed himself to be pulled along and looked back at Mikasa, at his sister and the man she easily carried despite Levi’s size and weight. She looked all right, despite the blood on her face and torn clothes, but Levi….

“It’s what Levi would call a cluster-fuck – there were so many Malforms and they seemed to have a hard-on for Levi, Erd and Mikasa in particular, especially Levi and Mikasa.” Captain Hange grimaced and shook her head. “Erd’s in the next truck – he’s more stable since he didn’t get chewed up so much. Levi got separated from the rest of us and….”

“It was Annie.” Mikasa’s voice was hoarse, as if she was struggling not to growl. “I can sm- it was Annie.”

“We’re here.” Captain Hange threw open the door to her lab and urged them through it, then did something to it. “Quick, put him down over there.” She motioned to a clean looking section of the lab counter. “Eren, I need your blood,” she told him while Mikasa laid out Levi’s still form. “I took some from Mikasa on the way here, but it’s not enough, the infection’s taking over and we don’t have much time!” She rushed over to a drawer and pulled out a sterile syringe pack.

While she talked, Eren approached Levi and took a deep breath; there was the scent of blood, of sweat and pain and anger, of Levi. He wanted to bury his nose against the man’s neck, in that black hair, but overriding everything else was the scent of infection – Levi had probably only held on this long because of the blood Eren had already given him. Between that and Mikasa’s, it had held back the change for a short time, but….

“Eren! Give me your fucking arm!” Captain Hange was shrieking like the mad woman everyone claimed her to be, her eyes wild behind her glasses. “I swear I’ll break it if you-“

“It’s too late,” he told her. “It won’t do any good.” He had to force the words past a throat gone tight, and as he spoke, Mikasa rushed to his side.

The captain stared at him in shock, her lips moving without a sound while she shook her head. When Mikasa went to pull free one of her blades, Captain Hange let out a loud scream and jumped forward. “No! No, dammit, he said he wants to live! We have to try!” She reached out to grab hold of Eren’s shoulders. “Can’t you try something?”

“More blood won’t work,” he yelled back, a coldness spreading through him at the thought of losing Levi.

“At least *try*, dammit! The stubborn bastard wouldn’t give up on you without a fight!”

Mikasa wrenched the hysterical woman away from him and hissed at her, telling Captain Hange to leave him alone. Eren rubbed his hand over his face and tried to think of what to do, what was the right thing and why he felt so horrible just then. People died all the time, died every day and he was used to it. He expected it. He-

He found himself at Levi’s side without even thinking about it, the scent of blood so strong that his fangs pushed out in a rush. The world went grey except for Levi, who glowed so brightly before him. He could hear the slowing heartbeats in the man’s chest, could smell how the infection increased between each breath. Without meaning to, he leaned closer, leaned toward the bandaged neck.

“Eren, no!”

“Yes! Yes, do it! Please!”

There was little resistance as he bit into the unmarked flesh on the other side of the neck, his teeth being so sharp and human flesh so… so *plump*. The blood tasted bland and watery yet something drove him on to keep drinking, to dig his teeth in deeper so more would pour into his mouth, his fingers tangling in the soft strands as he tilted Levi’s throat about to ensure that he got every last drop. He couldn’t stop drinking until the blood stopped flowing, until the heartbeats slowed and the breathing stilled and… and… and Levi died.

Levi was dead, and Eren had just drained him dry. Had most likely changed him.

Pushing away from Levi’s body in horror, Eren wiped at his bloody mouth as if he could deny what he’d just done by getting rid of the evidence. Meanwhile, Captain Hange rushed to his side and clutched at his right arm. “Is it done? Did you do it? Oh, I would give my left kidney to have been able to record that!”

He wanted to shove her away, to yell at her that she’d just stood there and watched while her friend had been made into a monster, but a new wave of excited shrieking cut him off – he looked up to see smoke begin to rise from Levi’s wounds.

“Oh! Where’s my camera! I have to record this!” Captain Hange ran off to search for her equipment, leaving a shell-shocked Eren to stare at the second person he’d ever turned. A person he didn’t even know who wanted to be turned.

“Eren?”

He jumped at Mikasa’s presence and shook his head, too… too drained of *everything* just then to deal with anything else. “I… I didn’t mean to – it just-“ He didn’t know what he meant to say. How did he explain that just like all those years ago with his sister, something had taken over?

There was something akin to sorrow in Mikasa’s expression just then. “It’ll be all right,” she assured him, her right hand pressed gently against his cheek.

Would it? “I can’t – I’m sorry, I *can’t*.” He couldn’t be here when Levi woke up and found out what he’d done. “If he can’t… I’ll deal with it then, I promise.” He rocked up on his toes to give Mikasa a kiss on his cheek and felt guilty about dumping this on her, but he couldn’t bear to see Levi’s face when the man woke up. Once Levi decided that he hated what he was then Eren would deal with things, but he needed some time to come to grips with what he’d just done.

“Go, it’ll be all right,” Mikasa assured him.

Reaffirmed yet again that he didn’t deserve a sister like her, Eren fled. He had to unlock the door to get out of the lab, and nearly clawed off Ymir’s face when he found her lurking right outside. “What the fuck!”

“What’s going on in there?” She grabbed hold of his chin and wiped at his mouth. “You just fed,” she asked, dropping into an older dialect of English. “Did you feed on Levi?”

Shit, he forgot about the blood. “Not now, Ymir.” He scrubbed at his face with the sleeve of his shirt and attempted to push past her.

“The little shit was badly wounded, what did you do to him?”

“Not now!” He managed to shove past and began to run down the hallway, desperate to get away.

“Did you turn him? Eren Jaeger, did you turn him?”

Fuck, he was fucked. Running as fast as he could even though he had nowhere to escape, Eren couldn’t get that one thought out of his head.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would you believe that I almost ended this chapter at the last Levi scene? Was *this close* but thought... eh, that's a pretty mean thing to do if the next chapter is delayed a week or so....
> 
> So much fun with Mikasa in this chapter....


	20. Desire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, thanks for all the comments on the last chapter! Somehow I managed to get this chapter finished more or less on time (and another huge chapter, GAH), though just BARELY. Like, just finished one (tiny) last scene before posting, so hope it all makes sense and doesn't have too many errors. Especially since something in this chapter might make a few people happy. :-) Still need to go back and fix anything outstanding in 19.  
> Again, hoping the next chapter will be out on time, but a little behind now thanks to traveling so much this past week and plans next weekend. Fingers crossed.  
> As always, comments and kudos always appreciated. Always great to know what you think of the chapter/story.  
> *******

*******

There was a faint noise from far away and an ache beneath Levi’s back, a familiar stiffness in his body, through his shoulders and hips, from him sleeping on the ground. This was the worst part of being out in the ‘wild’, other than the damn dirt and bugs and Hange carrying on about her precious experiments-

Except that it was too quiet around him, without the sounds of those damn bugs and birds and people shifting about in their sleep, and the air smelled of chemicals with the acrid tang of old blood beneath it instead of dirt and grass, and the last thing he remembered was… was….

He woke up with a gasp, his hands reaching for the throat he suddenly remembered being torn into, reaching with a right hand that suddenly was working once again, sitting up with a body that responded to him instead of being sluggish and slashed to shit. Woke up to find himself in Hange’s *lab* of all things, stretched out on one of her workstations, and turned to see Mikasa sitting with an unreadable expression on her face a few feet away.

……

Yeah, no doubt about it, that blonde vampire bitch killed him and he was in hell. The only thing missing was that fucking shovel in Miss Sunshine’s hands over there.

“Great, I get to put up with you for the rest of the afterlife? If I’d known that, I would have stomped on more puppies or something.” He fell back onto the workstation and rubbed at his eyes. As if it couldn’t get any worse, he got to spend eternity in a *filthy* uniform.

“To think that I believed that Eren could be so dense.” There was the sound of metal creaking and then cool hands wrapped around his wrists. “Much to my regret, you’re still among the living,” Mikasa informed him as she pulled his hands away from his eyes.

“Bullshit.” Levi yanked his wrists free and glared at her. “You don’t walk away from what that bitch did to me and-“ As realization washed through him, he sat up and skittered away from her as far as the hard surface allowed. “Oh *no* fucking hell.” He scrambled to look over his body, tugging at his soiled and torn uniform, at the healed flesh through the slashed fabric. Despite the dried blood, there weren’t even any damn scars to mark where he knew the Malforms had torn into him, *nothing*. “What the hell did you freaks do to me,” he demanded to know as he all but fell onto the floor.

“Yes, definitely slow.” Mikasa tugged on her scarf and glared at him, her eyes shading into gold. “What do you think happened?”

Anger washed through him at her shitty attitude and before he could yell at her that he’d been fucking unconscious, how the hell was he supposed to know, his vision went weird. The room started to look flat, the colors faded away except for Mikasa, and his teeth… oh *fuck*! “Where the *hell* is Eren!” What the hell had that little shit done to him? He looked down to see fucking *claws* sprouting from his fingertips and cursed again. Oh, he was going to *kill* that brat when he got his hands on him.

Burrowing her face in that damn scarf of hers, Mikasa shook her head a few times. “Most likely? He’s up on the roof right now.”

“Why the hell is he up there? Get his ass down here *now*!”

“He’s up there because he’s waiting for me to go see him and tell him that you’re waiting to be killed, for good this time!” When Levi stared at her in shock and tried to make sense out of that insane answer – what, the idiot turns him and then wants to kill him? – she sighed and dropped her hands to her side. “Look, he’s not… all there at times, okay? He gets ideas in his head and that’s it for him. Right now he’s convinced that turning you was a mistake and you’re going to be against it, and I must say that he might be right this time.” She stared at him as if waiting for Levi to agree.

About to rub the back of his head with his right hand and stopping just in time when he remembered about the *fucking* *claws*, Levi cursed and spun around, needing some space just then. As far as he knew about things, a few minutes ago he’d been fighting for his life and not doing so well. Then he wakes up and finds himself turned into… well, turned. And being told by *Mikasa* of all people.

“Just to be clear, if you’re *not* happy about things I won’t bother to go get Eren, I’ll do it myself.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you and that fucking shovel are just chomping at the bit there, Sunshine,” Levi told her, not bothering to turn around. “Give me a damn minute, okay?” He was tempted to throw one of Hange’s experiments at her but when he stepped closer to it, the stench was so overwhelming that he recoiled in horror. What the hell?

Skirting around the workstation, he took a few shallow breaths and was relieved when his vision returned to normal and the fangs and claws retreated. That shit… well, that shit would take some getting used to, obviously. If he was going to… dammit. He honestly hadn’t expected to live more than a few more years at the most with the way things were going, and that was if he was lucky. At best he hoped to not turn into a Malform and to at least go down fighting, but yeah, he knew his days were numbered. So was it a bad thing to be… whatever it was that Eren was if it meant being able to live? He couldn’t quite grasp the concept of living as long as the siblings, of counting years as centuries instead of decades, but it sure as hell beat being put down for being infected. And it sure as hell was better than being dead, especially if it meant that he could track down and pay back a certain blonde bitch.

So yeah, he guess he was ‘happy’ about it. As much as he could be when all that he really knew was that he wasn’t dead and he wasn’t a vampire. Well, wasn’t mostly a vampire. Shit, this would take some figuring out, but he supposed he had time now – and a certain brat’s ass to kick to get some answers out of if said brat knew what was good for him. Pushing aside any doubts he had at the moment, Levi turned around to face Mikasa with a slight smirk on his face. “Sorry to ruin your day, but looks like you’re going to have to put up with me for a very long time to come.”

It wasn’t much of a surprise when she didn’t react to the news, just nodded and went to fetch something from Armin’s workstation. “That’s good, I suppose.”

“Damn right it is.” He rubbed at his neck as more things began to drift back to him. “Hey, was there yelling? Seemed to me that there was a lot of noise or something before I woke up. And where’s Hange?” There was no sign of the crazy scientist anywhere, which was odd. He’d have expected her to be descending upon him with an arrangement of medical equipment by now.

Mikasa returned with a bundle of material in her arms, which turned out to be clean clothes for Levi. “I sent her out of here – told her that it might not be the best thing for her to be around when you first woke up in case you were starving.”

Levi accepted the clean clothes with a grimace; he was grateful for them, but there wasn’t much of a sense of changing when he was still so filthy. “But I’m not starving.” He felt somewhat hungry, but it wasn’t uncontrollable or anything. Setting the clothes aside, he flexed his arms and legs; everything felt perfectly normal, as if nothing had happened. The stiffness from before was gone, there were no signs of his injuries and he felt in perfect shape.

“You should be okay until we can sneak you out later tonight to hunt. I just thought it might be good to give you a little privacy when you woke up, just in case.” Mikasa shrugged and handed over a box of wet wipes; she must have seen his reaction to the clothes.

He grimaced again at the thought of feeding off of Malforms, but supposed he’d better get used to it. “Great. So looking forward to it. If it wasn’t Hange screaming, who was it then?”

A frown marred Mikasa’s usually impassive visage. “Ymir managed to barge in here when Captain Hange was leaving and demanded to know if you’d been turned. We… had words.”

Ah. It was a shame that he hadn’t been awake for that one, though he had a feeling he’d see round two, three, four, etc. of that fight in the upcoming days. Eren certainly had set himself up for a lot of grief in saving Levi’s ass, not that Levi wasn’t grateful. Mostly grateful. He’d revise his opinion after hunting tonight. “Must have been fun.”

Mikasa grunted, which meant that she didn’t want to talk about the subject anymore. That was fine with Levi, who was tired of feeling utterly disgusted with himself. “So, we’re done here, right? I’m up, I’m fine with things, no need to chop off my fucking head, you can go now.” He began to strip off his shirt, hoping that she’d get the fucking hint and leave.

Mikasa merely shrugged and stayed put. “It might be best to supervise you around other humans at first.” When he glared at her for treating him like an uncontrollable twit, a slight smile curved her lips. “All right, I’ll need to take you out hunting later tonight, but yes, we ‘should’ be done here. You shouldn’t leave until you talk to Captain Hange, though – I believe she’s spreading the story that you weren’t injured as badly as suspected, that it was mostly a concussion and superficial wounds but people will probably still talk.”

“Let them talk.” He cracked open the case of the wet wipes and gasped at the pungent chemical odor that escaped. “The fuck?”

“Hmm, horrible, isn’t it?” She motioned to the case. “Be sure to wipe off all of the blood. You’ll have to scrub really hard since it’s dried on.”

He nearly threw up at the thought of wiping that… that… “The hell? You expect me to use this shit?”

“Of course. Come on, be a man.” Her smile took on a sharp edge. “It’s just a wipe.”

He flashed back to saying something similar to Eren once and narrowed his eyes at the manipulative bitch. She wanted to play this game? *Fine*. Taking a deep breath and holding it, he grabbed a wipe and used it to start cleaning the blood from his neck and upper body.

Breathing shallowly through his mouth as he grabbed another wipe, he vowed that he was going to make Eren pay for this somehow.

*******

Eren stared out over the courtyard, which was now emptied of all the fallen Freedom Corps fighters. The maintenance bots were busy racing about removing traces of blood and other signs of the impromptu triage. Would it be back to the usual training sessions tomorrow?

He hadn’t moved for a good while when he heard the scrape of claws against the wall and braced himself for the company; it wasn’t a surprise when Ymir’s head appeared over the ledge and she leapt onto the roof a few seconds later. “You’re becoming predictable, you know.”

“There’s not exactly a lot of places where I can go,” he told her as he continued to gaze out over the dome.

“That’s true.” She came over to sit beside him. “They really do have you pinned down, don’t they?”

Feeling like that question didn’t deserve an answer, Eren just sat there in silence. He knew what she wanted from him and that she’d get to it soon enough, why waste the breath?

The quiet lasted a couple of minutes, Ymir a warm presence beside him during that time. “You know, I saw Levi before I came up here. He looks pretty good for a dead guy.”

Eren hung his head until his hair hid the world from his view. “Yeah? Imagine that.” He picked at a spot of blood on his knee. When had that happened? Was it from earlier in the courtyard or was it Levi’s?

“Yes, imagine that.” She let out a flat, unamused laugh. “Imagine the guy who has the ability to turn others, to keep them from becoming these mutated fucks yet refuses to do so no matter how much power or money people offer him, no matter how much begging they do, over years and *years*, and all of a sudden he turns this bitter fuck of a man. Imagine that.” Her voice couldn’t be more sarcastic if she tried.

“Ymir….” Eren wrapped his arms around the back of his neck and gave his head a small shake. “It’s been… an unbelievably shitty day or two. Really. One of the shittiest in a couple of centuries. So could you spare me the little song and dance where you do the whole tearing apart thing and just get on with it?” He didn’t know how much more he could take right now without one of them ending up going over the ledge – hell, maybe both of them. What he wouldn’t give for a proper skyscraper just then.

She was quiet long enough that he was almost, *almost*, tempted to look up. “Okay, I’ll skip the whole spiel where I go on about you being a huge fucking hypocritical asshole. Because really, you are.”

“Thank you.” Oddly enough, he meant it. He’d known her long enough that yeah, they could be up here for hours on the topic if she really wanted to drag it out.

“You’re welcome. Let me just ask what was it that drove you to turn the short little shit down there?”

Eren wasn’t going to answer that. Nope. Not with Ymir. He’d spent enough time thinking about it before she’d arrived, about what last night had meant, about why he hadn’t been able to- nope, not talking about it with her.

“Yeah, okay.” There was a shuffling sound as if she was standing up, which finally made Eren look up at her. Instead of her usually mocking expression, there was a look of desperation over her sharp features. “Well, now you know how I feel about Krista, what I would do if it was her lying on that table, torn up by Annie. Which is why I *need* you to turn her, because there’s such a tiny chance she’ll survive if I risk attempting it.” She didn’t say anything else, just continued to look at him for several more seconds before leaving.

He continued to stare up at where she’d been and did his best to not think about certain things long after she’d left.

*******

Erwin set aside the datapad and rubbed at his eyes while he mentally digested the latest report; eighteen dead and thirty-five wounded. Almost half of the 104th incapacitated in some manner or another, and they hadn’t had as many casualties as the Engineers….

They would open up to new recruits, but he knew they wouldn’t gain enough to recoup the losses, not with the attacks increasing in their savagery. Some people might be spurred on to do something to help protect the dome after the close call on the seal, but in the end people were too content to go about their ordinary lives and let other people take the risks for them.

Hange thought that most of the wounded would be back to fighting form within two weeks, but a lot could happen in two weeks….

He rested his elbows on the desk and propped his forehead against his palms, desperate to figure out what it was that the vampires were after, other than Eren Jaeger. Today’s attack couldn’t have been a diversion since Eren was still safe, so what had it gained them? The dome’s seal was still intact, the gate was still unbroken – did they just want to whittle away at the Corps until Eren had no allies left?

If so, they may have made a miscalculation at last – Erwin straightened up in his chair and picked up the datapad he’d set aside so he could type out a response to an earlier message from Dot Pixis; he agreed to the new meeting date. The Engineers’ commander needed time to tend to his people, and then he wanted answers for today’s bloodbath as well as to share some valuable information.

Erwin wondered what that information was – Pixis did seem to love playing things close to the vest – and how much of his own information he should share. He kept that question in the back of his mind while he worked on a new duty roster.

About ten minutes into rescheduling the patrols with the reduced availability, Erwin looked up when there was a knock on his door. He managed a smile when Hange strolled inside. “Please tell me that you have good news.” Since she was smiling, he had to assume that she wasn’t here to deliver anything too depressing.

“That depends on if you consider the fact that Levi won’t give me a comprehensive fluid sample collection ‘bad news’ or not.” She pouted for a few seconds before dropping into one of the spare chairs in front of his desk.

“I take it that he’s awake and… adjusting?” He still found it difficult to believe that Levi had not only survived being attacked by a vampire but was partially one as well now – it was one thing for the siblings’ blood to be used to heal Petra, but to start turning other people? Where was the line? Weren’t they supposed to be human? Still, he supposed that if anyone was to be turned, Levi was the one bastard who would be too stubborn to change too much.

“Basically.” A huge grin broke out over Hange’s face. “I think the improved senses are messing him up, but he settled down once I made him some tea and he realized that he could still enjoy it.” The grin slowly faded away. “I haven’t allowed him out of my lab yet – I know that just a few of us saw how bad he really was, but I wanted to make sure you were ready to back me up once he gets out of there.”

Once people saw a man walking around who should at least still be in Medical, she meant. “Most people believe him to be superhuman already, but if it gets out of hand, let me know.”

Hange nodded and relaxed back in the chair. “I might let it slip that I’ve been tinkering with the nanos – it would help explain Petra’s recovery as well, and any time we use Eren and Mikasa’s blood to speed up the healing process. Speaking of Petra, she’s getting bored in Medical.”

“She has lots of company right now.” Erwin frowned at the thought of his people being struck down by Malforms as part of some incomprehensible vampire game.

“Yeah.” Hange stared down at her hands for a few seconds before practically jumping up from her seat. “Well, I’ll go let the grumpy bastard know that he’s free – if I have to keep hearing him bitch about how he needs a proper shower I’ll be tempted to run him through with my blades.”

“All for the purpose of an experiment, of course.”

Hange paused in leaving to give Erwin a level look. “No.” She didn’t say anything else as she left.

Erwin was staying far away from Hange’s lab for the foreseeable future.

*******

“Eren?” Mikasa’s smile faded when she reached the top of the roof and found her brother sitting perfectly still, his knees drawn up to his chest and his head bowed. “Are you all right?” She rushed over to him.

“Mmm?” He slowly lifted his head and blinked at her, his eyes glowing faintly in the dim light. “Yeah.” Despite what he said, he didn’t *sound* or *look* fine – his face was pinched and his voice weak.

“Oh, Eren.” She knelt beside him and wrapped her arms around him to hold him close, and smelled Ymir on him. “What was *she* doing here,” she hissed. “Did she-“

“It’s all right.” He reached up to run his fingers along her left cheek. “We just talked for a little bit.”

“But-“

“It’s all right,” he repeated. “So, how’s Levi?” He glanced down as he asked the question, as if unwilling to see her face when she answered.

Settling beside him yet keeping her arms still wrapped around his shoulders, she let out a slow breath and shook her head. “He’s as stubborn as you are – no wonder you two get along so well.” She could feel him stiffen at the words, probably trying to figure out if they were good or bad. “He’s not upset with you or what you did.” Well, not too upset, or else she wouldn’t have let the man leave the lab in one piece.

It was as if all of the tension drained out of Eren at the news, he slumped against her, his head resting against her shoulder. “Really?”

“Yes, really.” She tilted her head against his and smiled. “I think it’ll take a few days for everything to really sink in, but for now, it’s fine.”

“Then-“

“Eren… it’ll be fine.” Really, sometimes he could be so negative. “That idiot is too much of a fighter to not accept the changes,” she admitted. It had been amusing to see him refuse to back down from the challenge earlier, even though she knew he must have been almost sick from the wipes; it would take him awhile to get used to the enhanced senses.

“Still, that doesn’t mean he’ll be happy with me for forcing it on him.” Eren sounded really upset; his body had become tense again and he seemed unable to look at Mikasa.

Shifting around to force him to look at her, she knelt in front of him and clasped his hands between hers. “What’s bothering you? Is it something that Ymir said?”

He stared past her for a second before shaking his head. “No… yes… in a way.” When he finally did meet her eyes, a faint blush spread across his cheeks. “She said I finally understood why she wants Krista turned so much, and it’s true.” He tugged his right hand free so he could run it through his hair. “I… it was like with you – I couldn’t let him go. I didn’t even think about it, not really, I just found myself *doing* it because there was no way I could have let him die.”

Was he realizing that he had some feelings for the Shor- for the man? Mikasa entwined their fingers together and gave him an encouraging smile. “And is that so bad?”

He stared at her as if she was insane. “You’re my sister. Of course I care for you. But he’s….” He shook his head as if there were no words at all to describe what Captain Ackerman was just then.

In a way, Mikasa had to agree with him, but she also knew that they’d never get off of this roof if she left it up to Eren to figure things out at his own pace – once he was lost to one way of thinking, it was so frustrating to get him to get him out of that mindset. “He’s also someone you seem to like, who seems to make you feel something.”

Eren’s eyes narrowed as he cocked his head to the side. “Are we talking about the same person? I thought you hated him. Aren’t you upset that I turned him?”

“This isn’t about me,” she told him, unwilling to let him get out of this so easily. “Is he my favorite person? No. Do I think he’s good enough for you? *No*. But do I think that you turned him for a reason? Yes. So why did you turn him?” She gazed back expectantly at him, willing him to say it out loud.

He bit at his bottom lip for a moment before closing his eyes. “I don’t want to lose him. He means too much to me.” The words came out raw-sounding, as if they cost him so much to acknowledge them.

She suspected that was as close as Eren would come for a very long time to admitting that he had feelings for someone else and leaned in to give him a hug. “Then I won’t cut off his head.”

“Uh, thanks. I think.” Eren hugged her back, his arms wrapped so tight around her back that it was as if he had no intentions of letting her go any time soon.

“I might have to have another talk with him again, though.” Maybe bring an ax or something along with that one….

That startled a weak laugh from her brother. “You’re not enjoying yourself, are you? What was the old saying about watching out for the quiet ones?”

“Not at all.”

They were quiet for several minutes, and then Eren slowly let her go, as if reluctant to do so. “I’m going to talk to Ymir again… to tell her that she’s right.” He was once more staring past Mikasa’s shoulder at something in the distance.

She wanted to tell him no, that he should think about this some more… but she knew that he wouldn’t agree to such a thing without giving it a lot of thought. That he’d weighed such a decision for *years*. Also, in the end it was something that he had to choose to do on his own. “All right.” She shifted about to sit next to him, and smiled when he entwined their fingers together and rested his head against her shoulder.

Things were changing – humans knew what they were, the vampires were closing in and now there would be two others like them, one with a claim to Eren that made a part of Mikasa feel deeply unsettled – but this would always be the same, this bond she shared with her brother. She found peace in that and pushed away the fears she had for the future for a little while so she could enjoy the moment with Eren.

*******

Krista searched through the common room for the second time yet failed to find Ymir anywhere; she hurried past Armin on her way to the ’lounge’ area the when he called out her name.

“Krista? Is something wrong? You seem to be going in circles.”

She paused and looked back at him. “I can’t find Ymir anywhere – have you seen her?”

He set aside the datapad he was reading from on the bed with a worried frown on his face. “No, I haven’t. Do you want some help in finding her?”

“That’s okay.” Letting out a long, frustrated sigh, she joined him on the bed. “She’ll probably get angry if I ‘unleash the hounds’, as she’d put it.” The odd phrase provoked a smile from Armin. “I just wish I knew where she was and what she was doing – lately she’s been acting a bit odd.” It felt nice to have someone to talk to about things – for so long there had only been Ymir to confide in.

Armin smiled back, the expression more than a little wry, and slid his right hand into his hair. “Honestly? I think everyone’s acting a bit odd right now.” He propped his elbow up on his knee and leaned his head into his hand. “A lot of stuff is going on. Maybe she wanted a little space to think things through because of the whole… well, Eren and Captain Ackerman stuff?” He glanced out at the room beyond them, and the people going about their day; no one seemed to be paying them any attention, but they couldn’t exactly talk about certain things out loud.

“I’m sure it has something to do about those two.” Krista picked at the edge of her left boot while she thought about how furious Ymir had been when she’d learned that Eren had turned Captain Ackerman. “I just don’t know why she’s carrying on like this over it.” Why she was shutting Krista out instead of them talking about it like they always did?

“At least you can mostly figure out why Ymir does what she does,” Armin remarked in a dry manner. “That’s more than most of us can do, including Eren and Mikasa.”

Krista was offended by the comment at first… and then had to admit that Armin was right. “Well, she’s used to confusing people in order to keep them off of her trail. It’s second nature to her by now.” She just didn’t usually do that to Krista, until recently. So why did it seem that she was being so secretive lately? Why did Krista feel that there was something being hidden from her?

“That and she likes to confuse people.” Armin shrugged when Krista glared at him for that. “I think Eren does a bit, too. It must be an effort to keep everything straight, all the different languages, customs and histories and such, that they just stop caring at some point.”

“Yeah.” Krista dug her thumbnail into the leather of her boot and frowned. “But that doesn’t help me find her.”

“No, I guess it doesn’t.” Armin sat up straighter with his hands clasped in front of him. “Well, I’d say try tracking down Eren since he has what she most wants right now. If she’s not harassing him, then I don’t really know where else she’d be.”

All of which was true, and what she’d done already. “I can’t find Eren, which was why I was looking for Ymir.”

“Oh.” Armin blinked a few times and smiled in a sheepish manner. “Sorry I wasn’t much help, then.”

“It’s all right,” she told him, doing her best to hold back the frustration she felt. At least she’d been able to talk to someone.

She stood up and brushed her hands down her thighs while she forced a smile onto her lips. “Thanks for trying to help.”

“I hope you find her soon. I’m sure she’ll show up – she doesn’t seem to leave you alone for too long.”

No, which was in part why Krista felt that something was wrong – Ymir usually didn’t disappear like this, when them being away from each other was such a bad thing in case they had to leave in a hurry. Instead, she just nodded and waved goodbye to Armin. “I’ll check the roof one more time in case she’s up there stalking Eren.”

He laughed at her weak attempt at a joke and reached for his datapad. “That’s one way of putting it.”

Keeping an eye open for her girlfriend as she left the common room, Krista headed to the nearest exit, filled with a sense of worry that she couldn’t rationalize away.

*******

Levi stared at himself in the mirror above the sink in Hange’s lab as he did the best to rinse the stink of those awful chemical wipes off of his skin and appraised his appearance in the most detached manner possible; he’d always been told that he looked young for his age, and he supposed that he’d aged well for 34 years of age. At least his face was free of any lines and scars, though he’d always thought that his eyes were rather small and off-putting. The dark circles beneath them didn’t help – the dark circles appeared less prominent since he’d become one of the blood-sucking ‘undead’. Guess he owed the brat for that one.

So if he was stuck with looking like ‘this’ for centuries to come, it wasn’t too bad – at least he wasn’t fooling people with some barely out of prepubescent face like a certain *someone*… and he wouldn’t think about the fact that he was going to nail the ass of said certain someone later. It wasn’t as if he was that attracted to Eren’s face… well, Eren did have a cute face, when he let his true self show and all that experience aged his appearance beyond something so childish.

What would people see when they looked at Levi in another fifty years? A hundred years? Even more than that? He supposed that he’d find out eventually. What would they think when they saw him standing next to Eren? It was probably a good thing that he looked young for his age at this point in time, considering that the shit people were talking about them now was bad eno-

“Hey! You looking for a glimmer of a conscience in there? I can tell you it’s not going to happen.”

He pushed away from the mirror to find Hange grinning at him while she leaned against a counter a safe distance away. “What did the almighty asshole have to say? Can I leave yet?”

“Yeah – he’s taken pity on me and unleashing you upon the unsuspecting hordes so I can get some work done.” She pushed away from the workstation and made a shooing motion at him. “Go on, get out of here – but expect to see me later tonight.”

Yes, so she could watch him feed off of a Malform. He shuddered a little at the thought of tearing into one of those unclean freaks with his *teeth* even as he made his way past her. “Are Petra and Erd still in Medical?” There were a few things he needed to do before going ‘hunting’ that night, and one of them was to check on what remained of his squadron.

Something akin to pity flashed across Hange’s face. “Yes, in one of the private rooms.” She fussed with her glasses for a moment. “251.”

“Thanks.” He was a bit surprised that they’d moved Petra but took it as a good sign that she was doing better. “And where’s Eren?”

“Uhm…” Now the crazy freak came across as uncomfortable. “Yeah, Eren.” She laughed a couple of times, the sound too forced to be amused. “No one’s seen him all day.”

Why wasn’t Levi surprised? Still, one thing at a time, and that was seeing the remains of his personal squad and breaking the news to them of what he’d become. Levi didn’t waste any more time with his friend and hurried out of the lab before she decided to hound him for more obscene ‘samples’.

Fortunately Medical wasn’t too far away from Hange’s lab, so Levi wasn’t out ‘in the open’ for too long. If he thought he’d garnered a lot of attention after Eren’s little incident, it was nothing like today; people were whispering about how he was back on his feet, about what Hange must have done to heal him so quickly and how unfair it was that captains received preferential treatment. He gritted his teeth and continued on his way to see Petra and Erd.

Once in Medical, it only took a minute to find their ‘room’, which was set up to give them both some privacy. At the moment, the heavy cloth sub-dividers were withdrawn to allow them to talk to each other; Petra was sitting propped up in her bed, appearing mostly healed save for some bandages still wrapped around her arm, while Erd was reclined in bed with gauze wrapped around the right side of his face and his upper chest.

“Captain!” Petra spotted him first and leaned forward from her nest of pillows, a bright smile on her face. “You’re looking well! Erd told me that you actually had to be carried away from a fight for once.”

Levi clicked his tongue in annoyance and shot the injured man a disproving look. “It wasn’t that bad.” A blatant lie, but he wasn’t taking any chances that someone might overhear them.

“Sorry, it’s difficult to see things properly with a Malform trying to claw off your face.” Erd grimaced as he lightly touched the bandages covering half of his face. “It’s good to see you back on your feet, Sir.”

He grunted in acknowledgement of the well-wishes and came to a stop between their beds, uncertain of what exactly he was doing here now that he’d arrived; Hange kept him appraised of their conditions and it wasn’t as if he normally made a habit of visiting Medical like this. His people knew he cared about them but did a shit job of showing it, so why change things now? “Hopefully you’ll be joining me soon.”

“Definitely. There’s some debts outstanding that we need to balance.” The bright smile on Petra’s face dimmed as she stared off at the far wall. “Captain Hange thinks I’ll be out of here by tomorrow – I want back on patrol as soon as possible, Sir.” Her normally light-colored eyes were darkened by shadows when she finally looked up at him.

He stared back at her and thought about Gunther and Olou, about how those shitty vampires had decided to target *his* squad in their damn game with Eren. The world lost some of its color, a fact he really didn’t notice until Petra gasped.

“Sir? Is… Sir?”

“As soon as Hange clears you for duty, you’ll be back in uniform,” he told her. It was when he reached out to give her shoulder a reassuring squeeze that he finally realized that his fingers had grown claws and that she was staring at him oddly - staring at his *eyes* - and cursed beneath his breath. Yet Petra didn’t flinch away or scream at him, she merely smiled and gave his hand a quick squeeze in return.

“Tell Eren ‘hi’ for me, okay,” she asked with a small, knowing smile on her face.

He nodded in confusion at the request, wondering why she was bringing up the brat just then, and turned to nod in goodbye to Erd while struggling to regain control of whatever it was that had caused him to ‘vamp’ out like that. So much for breaking the news to them ‘easy’, but at least it was done. Erd smiled back and wished him a good day.

As he walked away, he could hear Erd complain to Petra about how unfair it was that he was the only one not to get any of the ‘good stuff’.

*******

“Hey, Roswitha, have you seen Krista?”

The tall Corps fighter frowned and motioned down the hall toward the common room. “She was headed to the ‘room looking for you, last I saw.”

Ymir inwardly winced while she thanked the other woman and hurried on her way to find her girlfriend; why did it seem like Krista was checking up on her lately? Did she suspect something? What could she possibly suspect? It wasn’t as if Ymir had a huge ‘being forced to help a bunch of asshole vampires’ sign tattooed on her forehead or anything.

Still, a lot of shit was going down lately, enough to make anyone paranoid. People were getting jumpy back when some of the Corps’ elites were getting killed, and now when so many people had died? Yeah, it didn’t require too many brain cells to figure out something was going on, and Krista was pretty damn smart. She had to be worried that Ymir would get dragged into all of this shit somehow.

Ymir’s thoughts were so focused on the whole vampire mess and how it was affecting herself and her lover that at first she thought she was imagining the faint beeping sound coming from the pouch on her belt. When it finally sunk in what the noise meant, she let out a yelp and fumbled for the comm device hidden inside of it while she searched for a private place to talk – fortunately, there was a small training room available.

“Dammit, can you make the ringtone on this thing any more obvious,” she snapped once she was alone.

“And ‘hello’ to you, too.” It was Reiner on the other end; she supposed she should be grateful that it wasn’t Annie. “It worked, didn’t it? Got your attention? So don’t complain.”

Then again, it was clear that the bastard had hung out with Annie a little too long. “How am I going to explain it if it goes off during something important?” Then something occurred to Ymir. “Don’t tell me that you want me to help you now – Krista hasn’t-“

Reiner cut her off with an annoyed grunting sound. “No, now isn’t the time, though it’s getting very close. We wanted to check in on Eren, see how he’s doing lately.” There was something… expectant in his tone, as if he was waiting for her to make a big revelation.

Ymir pulled the comm away from her ear and glared at it, suddenly even more suspicious about the day’s events. “Like what?”

“Don’t play games, Ymir, I’m not in the mood. Just tell me what Eren did after receiving Annie’s ‘gift’.” Reiner could have a temper, but he usually wasn’t as short-fused as that.

Ymir hated feeling like being a pawn in someone’s choreographed game, and knew that Eren *really* hated that sensation. “Let me get this straight,” she talked out very slowly, needing to put her thoughts into words before she started breaking things. “You sick fucks nearly took out a gate just to see what Eren would do?”

Reiner made a scoffing sound. “There was more to it than that.” Yet he didn’t say ‘no’. “Now what did Eren do?”

Count to ten and then speak, she told herself. It didn’t help all that much, but she knew it pissed off Reiner to be made to wait. “He turned Captain Ackerman. Does that make you happy?”

“Eren actually turned another living being?”

“Yes, he did.”

“Good.” There wasn’t any kind of explanation, just the one word spoken with enough smugness that Ymir wanted to scream. “We’ll be in contact with you soon, so be prepared to do some work.”

“Wait – aren’t you-“

“Don’t fuck this up.”

This time, Ymir did let out a scream of frustration when the other end went dead. The fucking assholes! The sanctimonious, fucking assholes! If it wasn’t for- ooh!

It was a struggle to not lash out and destroy something, to punch holes in the wall or break the tables set up in the room; it would only raise questions she didn’t want asked and draw attention to herself at a time when she couldn’t afford such things. But *dammit*, did she want to break things just then, all the while imagining certain faces as she did so.

She thought that she had gotten somewhere with Eren today – well, the boy better have come around, because every indication was that time had run out for them.

*******

One of the things that Eren missed from his childhood were libraries. Oh, it wasn’t as if he’d gone to them that often and usually he complained the entire time when his mother forced him to go along with her – he was never allowed in one unsupervised, not when there would be other children around – but it was the *thought* of them that he missed. An entire building devoted to stories you could borrow on a whim, a place designed to cure your curiosity and your boredom. He sure as hell could use a library right now, instead of lying on his back and staring up at the blank, bland ceiling of the basement training room.

The only thing of interest down here were the claw marks he’d left on the walls and ceilings during the practice sessions. If he let his mind drift and his vision blur, sometimes patterns would form. That one looked like a mutated giraffe, and that one looked like a race car, and that-

The sound of the room’s locked door opening shook him from his fantasizing and had him scrambling to his feet, since the majority of the people who knew the code to the door were either dead or injured. He was debating whether or not he should launch himself onto the walls and try to hide in the shadows when Levi sauntered into the room.

Seeing the man appear perfectly healthy after… after…. Eren shook his head to rid it of the image of Levi’s bloody and still form lying on the counter. Now Levi seemed utterly fine, moving with his usual confidence and grace as he approached Eren. He was dressed in his ‘casual uniform’ of black pants and white shirt, no sweater against the chill of the dome’s artificial environment.

“You try to run away and I will kick your ass,” Levi warned as he stopped about an arm’s length away. “I’ve climbed all over this shitty building looking for you, until it finally occurred to me to try down here.” He didn’t sound very pleased with having to expend so much effort. He didn’t sound pleased with Eren at all.

“Yeah, well, someone told me I was becoming a bit predictable so I decided to do something different.” Eren shrugged and wondered if he could get away with inching backwards by tiny increments while Levi stared at him so intently, his face an unreadable mask.

Levi clicked his tongue a couple of times while his hands rested on his hips, around where he normally wore his blades. “You seem to be doing a lot of that lately – doing unusual things.” He paused as if waiting for Eren’s response and then let out an angry huff. “Were you ever going to fucking face me? You turn me and that’s it?” He took a step forward each time he spoke, while Eren took a step away, and soon Eren found himself pinned against the wall with a furious Levi in his face. “’Here’s your new life now fuck off’?”

“No! That’s not-“ Eren pushed at Levi’s chest in an attempt to gain some space between them, but Levi had always been so damn solid and now the bastard had the enhanced muscle to back him up. “I didn’t- it’s- just… fuck!” He didn’t think he just lashed out and hit Levi’s chest; the first blow landed, but Levi caught his fist the second time and held it trapped.

“We tried that once, it didn’t work out that well, remember,” Levi sneered.

Equally confused and agitated just then, Eren’s only response was a loud snarl, his fangs fully extended and his eyes glowing.

“You’re a big boy, so use big boy words.” Levi bared his own fangs while his grey eyes burned into gold.

Seeing the physical change overcome the other man helped to restore some sort of rationality to Eren; he let out a shuddering breath and bent forward to rest his head against Levi’s shoulder while he struggled with so many conflicting thoughts and emotions. All he did for almost a minute was to breathe in and out slowly, to inhale Levi’s scent and listen to his heartbeat. Both of those things helped to center him, to calm him down, and he let out a sleepy little murmur as he closed his eyes.

Levi allowed this for several seconds before he released Eren’s hand and boxed him against the wall, both arms resting on either side of him and body pressed against his. “I’m not hearing anything, you shitty little brat.” Despite the insult, he sounded amused and even nuzzled Eren’s hair.

“I want to make sure I don’t use words too big for you to understand,” Eren mumbled, and then yelped when his left ear was nipped by rather sharp teeth. “Dammit, that hurt.” He lifted his head up so he could glare at the asshole.

“Oh please, it’s already healed.” Levi rolled his eyes, which were still glowing. “Now talk.”

Eren contemplated another punch but settled for resting his hands on Levi’s hips instead. “I’m just… it’s a lot to figure out, okay? I mean, I didn’t know what I was doing when I turned Mikasa. You’re the first person I’ve turned… knowing what would happen.” He leaned his head back against the wall while he looked at Levi.

“I still don’t see why that’s a good enough reason to hide from me.” Levi shifted closer so that their faces were barely more than a couple of inches apart. “Own up to your fucking actions. You change my life like this, don’t hide from the responsibility.”

“That’s just it – it’s not just your life,” Eren hissed back while he struggled not to claw at Levi’s hips. “Do you have any idea how many people begged me to change them? The offers of money and power I received?” He didn’t give Levi a chance to answer the questions. “One person was involved in building the first domes – he would have set up a private dome for Mikasa and me. Our lives could have been so much easier if I’d turned others along the way, but I didn’t. I swore I wouldn’t. But you… I couldn’t let *you* go, when I’ve watched thousands of other people die,” he admitted in a quiet voice.

It looked as if Levi wanted to make some sort of smart remark over that revelation, that he wanted to argue with or belittle what Eren had said. Yet when Eren continued to hold his gaze, to not look away, all his bluster melted away. “So why me?”

The question, asked in an almost confused tone of voice, prompted a laugh from Eren. “I was asking myself the same thing.” He closed his eyes and once more rested his head against Levi’s shoulder. “It’s… well, it’s just *you*.” Infuriating, annoying, brave, sadistic, talented, intelligent, insightful smart-ass that he was, somehow something inside of Eren had decided it wanted him. Yeah, he was fucked. Fucked and fucked-up.

Nimble fingers wove through his hair, at first untangling the knots and then gently gripping the strands. “Even when you talk normal, you still don’t make much sense.” Levi heaved such an incredibly weary sigh that Eren knew it was exaggerated. “It’s a good thing you’re *my* problem to deal with, and now I can kick your ass all that much harder.” Levi used the hold to tilt Eren’s head back for a kiss.

A certain someone forgot that his fangs were still partially out, which led to a scraped tongue on Eren’s part; Levi seemed all the more determined to get the kiss right after that and latched onto Eren’s mouth with more fortitude than passion. Almost laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, Eren decided to just go with the flow and kissed him back, figuring that a chewed up tongue wasn’t too bad a thing in the whole big scheme of things. He rubbed his fingertips along the undercut of the asshole’s hair and rocked their hips together, which along with a few seconds of a blood-free kiss seemed to satisfy the idiot.

“There,” Levi murmured as he trailed kisses along Eren’s jaw. “Now, another fucking word about feelings or such shit and I’m breaking bones.”

“Agreed.” Eren hummed in pleasure and arched his neck. “Mikasa taking you out soon?” He could feel Levi’s teeth scraping along his skin and hear the other’s increased heart-rate from that taste of blood; as much as he would love to think of it as hormones, he knew that Levi needed a proper feeding.

“Yeah.” Levi huffed against Eren’s neck and groaned as if in pain when he pushed away. “Told her we’d go after I found you.” The accusatory look he gave Eren made it very clear that he blamed him for being so much trouble. “You going to freak out if I tell you to be in my quarters when I get back?”

Eren went still and gave the question some serious thought; he’d faced his feelings for Levi so there shouldn’t be any more surprises, and Levi was now ‘safe’ from him if he did lose control. There was no reason to fear having sex with him at this point, other than the whole ‘who knows what the future will bring’ bullshit that everyone faced. “No, I think we’re good now.”

“Because if you claw up my mattress again-“

“Yeah, yeah, much kicking will occur. I am suitable cowed. Get going.” Eren rolled his eyes to show how sick he was of being told he was getting some part of his body kicked and gave Levi a quick kiss on the lips before shoving him away. “Have fun sucking down Malform blood,” he reminded the asshole in as sweet a tone that he could muster.

Levi appeared as if he was going to be sick. “I fucking hate you right now. Malform blood. For *years*.” His lips pressed together tightly as if to prevent any of the blood from slipping past them.

“It’ll be so yummy, just you wait and see. All nice and thick and gloopy.” Eren grinned as he waved off the grumbling bastard.

*******

“And where the hell have you been, Rebel?”

Eren’s good mood vanished as soon as he heard Ymir call out to him. Rubbing at his right eye with the heel of his hand, he told himself that her tracking him down was to be expected and that he’d been lucky to avoid her for so long. “All right, let’s get this over with, okay,” he said in English.

He wish he had some type of recording device just then because it was clear the last thing that Ymir had expected was for him to agree to talk to her – she came to a halt and stood there with her mouth open for a couple of seconds before she snapped it shut and nodded. “Hell yes, it’s about time.” She motioned for him to move closer to the wall; a few people gave the strange looks as they walked past, probably because of the language or maybe because he was wearing clothes today, but a nasty glare from Ymir had them moving along quickly.

“So, you turned Levi,” she said, wasting no time.

“Yeah, we’ve been over this.” He took a deep breath and forced himself to say the words, to commit what he’d decided upon before he lost the nerve. “I turned Levi, I did what I said I’d never do-“

“Which is why you need to turn Krista, dammit!” Ymir stepped closer to him, her hands clenched into fists as if she wanted to either hit or grab him and could barely stop herself from doing both, her brows drawn over her eyes which were flashing back and forth between brown and red. “You need to do it-“

“Yes.”

“Huh?” If it wasn’t for the seriousness of the situation, what he was agreeing to do when he wasn’t even 100% certain that it would work, he’d laugh at the utterly gobsmacked expression on her face just then. “Did you just… did you say ‘yes’?” Her eyes narrowed even more as if waiting for him to deny what he’d just said.

“Yes, I’ll do it.” He ran his hands through his hair and tugged on the strands for a moment. “Whenever Krista is ready, I’ll do it.”

“Tomorrow,” Ymir said in a rush. “She’ll be ready tomorrow.”

He raised an eyebrow at the answer. “Shouldn’t you talk to her about it first?”

She shook her head. “We’ve been after this ever since she’s learned the truth about our kind – she’ll probably want you to turn her as soon as I tell her the news, but tomorrow will do.”

“Yeah.” It would give him a little time to prepare himself for it. “You do know I can’t promise anything, right? I wasn’t even sure that it would work on Levi.”

For the first time that day, Ymir smiled, the expression a little nervous but still a smile. “It’s a chance, Eren. All we’re asking for is a chance. Without it, there’s too great a possibility of her growing old or being hurt.”

He could understand that, after all of the people he’d watched die over the years. Reaching out, he wrapped a hand around Ymir’s upper right arm. “One more thing – you’ll be the one to bleed her,” he demanded. “I’ll finish it – do enough to turn her, but I won’t bring her to that point, all right?”

There was another flash of red and a hint of sharp white teeth from Ymir. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Rebel.” She glanced down for a moment, and appeared back to ‘normal’ when she looked back up. “Eren… *thank you* for this.” She almost looked guilty for a moment, but that didn’t make any sense. “This means a lot to us.”

He looked aside, suddenly made uncomfortable by Ymir’s gratitude – he was used to them trading insults and the like, not this… well, not this. “You were right, what you said about – well, you were right. That’s the only reason I’m turning Krista. So watch out for her since I won’t be doing this again.”

“I will.” She touched his shoulder, the gesture quick and light, and stepped away. “Tomorrow morning?”

“After breakfast, in Captain Hange’s lab.”

“See you then.”

He heard her walk away, her footsteps fast and quiet, and hoped that he wouldn’t regret this.

*******

“Maybe we killed most of the undead bastards,” Levi grumbled as they searched down yet another back alley. His stomach was beginning to cramp from hunger, which didn’t help his temper any – a temper already frayed from being in Hange and Mikasa’s company.

“No, I’m sure a few victims managed to escape at least during the confusion yesterday, and the trio are still out there. We’ll find something,” Mikasa assured him. She took a few steps forward and breathed deeply, her scarf pushed down past her chin. “Let’s try heading east – I think I’m picking up something.”

He wanted to tell her that she was crazy, but when he inhaled as well, he smelled… he wasn’t quite sure what he smelled, but it caused that whole weird color shift to happen and his fangs to descend so quickly that his jaw ached.

“Levi? You’re going all ‘vampy’ on us. What’s happening? Can you describe it for me?”

“Not now,” he told Hange, unwilling to put up with her crazy science shit when *something* was urging him forward, when he felt the need to… to… *fuck*, he was so *hungry* just then. He pushed past Mikasa to get to the exit of the alley and fired a rappelling wire, desperate to reach the source of that scent, something both so enticing and repellent at the same time.

“Shouldn’t you follow him?”

“No, he’s doing all ri-“

The voices faded behind him as he swung after the scent, tracking back when he went a little too far southeast at one point. When the scent was so close that he was almost drooling from hunger, he caught a glimpse of something pale moving up the side of a building and acted without instinct – he fired another wire to bring him in close, to come in fast, and then let the momentum of the wire’s arc fling him through the air so he could slam into the Malform.

There was an awful screech when he crashed into it, a flash of pain both from the impact and something sinking into his left shoulder, and then he was tearing into it with fangs and claws, all thoughts of his blades forgotten. The world spun around him, the sense of wind rushing past his skin and another flash of pain, but all he cared about was the rush of something so *delicious* and *hot* flowing into his mouth as he bit into the thing’s neck.

The Malform struggled beneath him and steam rose around them for some reason, but Levi merely dug in his claws and tore a bigger hole in the creature’s neck so he could get more of that blood *now*, and groaned when it gushed down his throat. The pain he felt faded away as he drank, as did the hunger; he closed his eyes so he could concentrate on the pleasure he felt from drinking, the sense of strength that flowed through his body with each swallow.

It felt as if he drank forever, but a time came when he eventually was full. Shifting away from the barely moving Malform, he opened his eyes to realize that they’d ended up on the ground, with Hange and Mikasa standing a few feet away. He forced himself to stand up, his body unresponsive for a few seconds, and in that amount of time Mikasa moved forward in a blur to decapitate the Malform with one of her blades.

“Not bad for a first time, though you need to pay better attention to your surroundings while you feed. Also, you have claws for a reason, learn to use them. There was no reason why you couldn’t have fed up on the wall, where it was safer,” she chided while she wiped her blade clean.

Stung over the criticism, Levi glared at her and went to brush the dirt from his uniform – only to realize that he’d made a mess out of it during his ‘meal’. In fact, he could feel the cooling blood on his face and along his left shoulder, where the Malform had clawed him. Fuck – he’d just eaten a fucking Malform. “Not all of us are perfect.”

“You don’t have to be perfect, you just need to keep from getting yourself killed or from revealing what you are,” Mikasa shot back. Then she motioned to Hange.

“It was really thrilling to see you feed! So animalistic – I wonder if the change unearths buried instincts or supplants them along with the altered DNA,” Hange babbled while she dug around in the bag that she’d brought along during their patrol. Levi inwardly cringed when he saw her hold out a packet of those shitty chemical wipes and knew that Mikasa was smiling – to think that he’d adored the damn things a mere day ago.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever lets me keep down this shitty blood I just swallowed.” He didn’t want to think about where it came from, even if it had tasted incredible at the time. Wrinkling his nose, he set about removing his ruined jacket and shirt so he could clean himself up enough to return back to headquarters without attracting too much attention – showing up one day covered in blood was bad enough, but two in a row?

“How did it feel when-“

“Not now, Shitty Glasses.” Levi shot his friend a nasty enough look to put an end to the questions for the night. He’d been through enough in the last day or so, all he wanted was to get back to his quarters and not deal with any more shit for a while. If a certain brat was waiting for him, as agreed, then so much the better.

Hange pouted but fell quiet as asked, and helped make him presentable. She did seem to find it amusing when he nearly gagged over wiping himself clean, while Mikasa was a bit too obvious about hiding the lower half of her face behind that damn scarf. As soon as Levi was dressed in clean clothes, save for his scuffed boots and dirty pants, he motioned for them to exit the alley.

“I’ve had enough of both of you for the night, let’s get going.”

“As if you’ve been the life of the party lately, Sweetie,” Hange shot back, and smiled in the face of his glare.

They made good time back to headquarters, without spotting any more Malforms along the way – that or sign of any of those shitty vampires. Bastards were probably up to some other way to screw over the Corps… but they’d just have to deal with it when it next happened, Levi supposed. He looked forward to returning the favor of ripping out throats when it did.

Once back on safe ground, Hange waved goodbye and headed back to her lab, babbling about a busy day ahead tomorrow, while Mikasa paused and looked at Levi. “Remember what I said about treating him right.”

He really wasn’t in the mood to put up with this shit right now. “Your brother is more than old enough to decide if he’s being treated ‘right’, you know.”

She gave him an odd look for several seconds before turning away. “You’re both complete idiots at this,” was all she said to him before leaving.

And someone was a meddling bitch. Fed up with people butting into his life, Levi rushed to his quarters and felt… *something* inside his chest seem to let go, some kind of tension unravel, when he took a deep breath and picked up on an oddly familiar scent, could see a slumped figure in the chair by his desk when he took a few more steps forward.

Eren was curled up in the chair, his legs pulled up on the seat and hugged to his chest while his head lolled against the back of the chair. He smiled at Levi, the expression lazy and barely-formed, and his eyes glowed faintly in the room’s dim light. “Hey you. How’d your first time go? You get his number and name or was it a ‘wham-bam thank you ma’am’ thing?”

Levi scowled at the casual impertinence directed his way in *his* quarters of all places while he stripped off his jacket, his pace quick and determined as he approached the desk. “Do you ever talk in a way that makes sense?”

“All the time. It’s the rest of the world that’s even more fucked up than me.” Eren closed his eyes, a lock of dark brown hair falling onto his nose. “Which is pretty sad, when you think about it.”

The brat had a point there, which was really messed up. Levi folded his jacket and set it on the desk, to be followed by his blades with their belt, and then the gauntlet; he cursed as he struggled to remove the contraption and sought some sort of distraction. “Yes, I fed tonight. It was… bearable.” He thought back to the rush of pleasure, strength and intense hunger he felt upon the first few drops of Malform blood and was grateful that his voice had been so even.

Still, something must have slipped past because Eren snorted through his nose while he rolled his head around. “Yeah, right. You probably nearly bit through the poor bastard’s head in an attempt to get at all its blood.” When Levi was silent in the face of the accusation, Eren finally opened his eyes. “Really? Bet Mikasa was pissed to have to yank you back in line.”

“Yeah, well, your sister’s lucky I didn’t decide that she looked nice and juicy.” Levi was getting sick of her smug ‘listen to me, little boy’ shit and wasn’t going to put up with it for much longer.

Eren shook his head back and forth before letting it rest against the chair at a very odd angle. “I’m going to forget you mentioned my sister and ‘juicy’ in the same sentence. Yuck.”

Finished removing the gauntlet, Levi went to stand next to the annoying idiot and flicked a finger at his nose. “Isn’t that uncomfortable as hell?” He hadn’t invited Eren so they could squabble all night out here while Eren sat all contorted on his chair.

“I’ve been in worse positions.” Eren pouted up at Levi while he rubbed his nose. “I’d ask if you’re going to abuse me all night, but I think we both know the answer to that one.” He sighed in a dramatic manner before wrapping his right arm back around his knees. “So if you-“

Having had enough of the useless talk by now, Levi grabbed Eren’s face gently yet firmly with both hands and used the hold to lift it up enough so he could give it one hell of a kiss. Catching Eren talking like that helped, as the brat had his mouth open. One swipe of his tongue inside of Eren’s mouth seemed to be enough; Eren was still for a moment and then he was kissing Levi back with a savagery that was almost scary.

Eren practically climbed out of the damn chair and onto Levi as if he was just another piece of furniture, up over the back of it and the next thing he knew, he had an armful of writhing vampire-hybrid doing his best to crawl *into* Levi. Eren’s tongue sought out his mouth and pushed deep, flicked about in his mouth while Eren’s legs wrapped around his waist and Eren’s arms latched onto his shoulders.

… well, that was one way to get things started, wasn’t it? Levi was a bit taken back to find out that Eren had actually been here after he’d gone out to hunt-

Stumbling into his bedroom with an armful of desperate brat whose claws were just scraping along the back of his neck, Levi managed to get them over to his *new* bed before he dumped Eren onto his ass. “Oi! You getting the fuck turned on because I drank undead freak blood,” he demanded to know.

It took Eren a few seconds to come to his senses, his eyes were glowing so bright just then. “Uhm… hello?” He cocked his head to the side and attempted to reach out for Levi. “Maybe… a little?”

“Shitty little….” Levi attempted to step away yet Eren sat up quickly and snatched at the sleeve of his white shirt before he could do anything. “Back off!”

“No!” Sitting up on his knees, Eren tugged Levi closer. “Look, you did taste so good.” He licked his lips as if to prove his point, and Levi found himself staring at the pink tongue that appeared and disappeared so quickly. “It’s been so long! And it just kicks in when I taste it… but I’m *here* for you.” He toyed with the untucked hem of his grey jersey while he stared at Levi through his thick eyelashes, his golden eyes glowing faintly in the darkness of Levi’s bedroom. “Thought we were going to be doing something other than talking – or bitching.”

Part of Levi wanted to kick the manipulative little shit out of his quarters on principal alone, but another part – hell, everything to do with his cock at that point – insisted that he ignore that first part. So he clicked his tongue while he reached out to grab onto Eren’s chin with a bit more force than necessary. “From now on, you get turned on by *me*, not some undead freak shit.” That made him equally pissed off at himself for spouting such bullshit.

Still, Eren grinned as much as he was able to with Levi’s fingers holding onto his lower face like a vise and licked his lips again. “Then do something to turn me on.”

“Such a little shit,” Levi grumbled before setting out to do just that, leaning in for a kiss that was even more ardent than the one before. He released Eren’s chin so he could thread his fingers through that messy tangle of hair, holding Eren still so he could practically assault his mouth with his tongue and teeth, an assault that Eren met with equal fervor.

They tumbled back onto the bed, Eren holding onto Levi and cushioning his fall, hands busy stripping each other of their clothes. Cursing when he had to pull away to kick off his damn boots, Levi found the entire process hampered by the fact that his fingers were now sprouting claws that loved to shred at his clothes and scratch at his skin. “How the fuck do you manage with these damn things?”

Eren laughed and leaned forward to pull off Levi’s left boot. “You get used to them, and learn to control them better.” He had some claws of his own, which didn’t seem to slow him any since he was stripped down to just his pants and a small pouch hung around his neck. Once he got rid of the boots for Levi, he unzipped his pants and shimmied out of them, underwear and all, to recline naked on the bed.

Levi hurried to remove the last of his clothes and then knelt beside Eren, his clawed hands carefully stroking along golden skin; Eren shivered at his touch, body arching up beneath his fingers as if to ensure that the caress lasted as long as possible. Eren’s body was more wiry than defined – he lacked the definition of muscle that Levi possessed but still had built up some. Judging from the length of those slim legs and the way his waist cut in from his shoulders, Eren’d had some hope of height if he’d been allowed to grow up naturally.

At least it meant that his sometimes childish looks aside, Levi didn’t feel that he was bedding a fucking kid once the clothes came off. He lightly traced his claws over Eren’s left thigh and smirked at the low moan the touch provoked – no, definitely not a child. “A little eager, are we?”

Eren propped up on one elbow and reached out the other hand to brush his fingertips along Levi’s erect cock, which prompted a sharp hiss from him. “Like I’m the only one?”

“Yeah, but it seems to me that we have a problem.” Levi held up his clawed fingers. “This is getting damn annoying.”

Eren muttered something beneath his breath and held out his own hand. “Give me the lube.” While Levi stared on in confusion, he closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate on something; after a few seconds, his claws retracted to leave his fingers normal. His eyes still closed, Eren snapped at Levi, “give me the damn lube before you piss me off and they return.”

Almost starting an argument over the claws, Levi decided that he could wait to question Eren on how he’d done that and handed over the lube kept in the nightstand’s drawer instead – bitch later and get his show now. “You’re getting awfully bossy.” Well, maybe not entirely skip the bitching.

“I’m about to put my fingers up my ass, I think I can be whatever I want.” There was a frown on Eren’s face when he snatched the lube from Levi’s hand, yet his tone was more teasing than anything. He lay back on the bed with his knees splayed and hips tilted upward, causing Levi to rock back on his knees so he had a better view of everything.

As soon as his fingers were slick enough, Eren reached between his legs with his right hand and began to prepare himself, his fingers circling around his entrance before one slipped inside. His cock was jutting upward, bobbing back and forth as he squirmed from twisting his fingers about, that golden skin becoming slowly flushed from pleasure.

Levi could feel the anticipation and need growing inside of himself with each passing second, from the sight of Eren arching his neck and sinking another finger inside of him, from the sound of the moans and gasps he made as he readied himself for Levi’s cock. Levi reached for the discarded bottle of lube and nearly squeezed out its entire contents, forgetting for a moment about his new strength, and began to stroke up and down his own cock while he stared hungrily at the sight before him.

“Eren….”

“Hmmm, Levi.” Eren gazed back with eyes gone luminous, strands of dark hair falling onto his flushed and sweat-dampened face. “You ready? Because I know I am. Ready for you to fuck me.”

It was such an incongruous thing, hearing those words come from someone who looked like Eren did. Levi wasn’t certain he liked it, but right now all he cared about was that they could finally fuck. “Then get your ass over here.” He waited impatiently for Eren to finish preparing himself and then yanked the brat onto his lap by pulling on his wrist. The feel of Eren’s body against his, almost feverishly warm, made him shudder.

“What?” Eren was all tangled arms and legs for a few seconds, until he sorted himself out with his legs straddling Levi’s and his arms over Levi’s shoulders. “Are you sure?”

“Don’t mess with my bed,” he ordered. “Now, start fucking before I kick your damn head in.” He felt as if he was going to burn up if… if… dammit. He latched onto Eren’s neck while his hands slid along smooth skin until he grasped Eren’s firm ass.

“Ohhh… always the sweet… talk with you.” Eren trembled as Levi’s mouth moved along his neck and shifted up on his knees until his ass brushed the tip of Levi’s cock. Both of them reacted at the touch, Eren by moaning and Levi by squeezing Eren’s ass, and then Eren reached back to hold onto Levi’s cock as he slowly began to lower himself onto it.

As soon as Levi pushed past the initial resistance, he couldn’t hold back on a low groan – Eren felt so tight and so damn *hot*, reminding him of that haunting dream. Eren murmured something in that guttural language as he slowly sank onto Levi’s cock, his eyes closed and face drawn in what appeared to be concentration, the pinpricks of what felt to be claws skittering along Levi’s back and shoulders.

After what felt to be too-fucking long, Eren finally bottomed out, taking all of Levi’s length in a slow descent. Levi let out a breath that he hadn’t realized that he’d been holding and gave his hips a slight thrust, arms wrapped tight around Eren’s waist as if that had a chance to hold on to him if the brat decided to go all crazy again. Yet all that happened this time as that Eren shivered a little and opened eyes which were glowing brightly, and give a light scratch along the nape of Levi’s neck.

“If you don’t fucking *move*, I will claw out your spine,” he told Levi in what seemed to be a perfectly civil tone of voice, except for a hint of a lisp because of his fangs.

Well, once again he’d let the bastard get away with giving orders. “Let’s see what your ass can handle.” Levi glared back while he shifted his hands to Eren’s hips and decided to teach a certain little shit to be careful about he asked for.

He let Eren rise up a little, hissing at the loss of that amazing heat and friction and then thrust up *hard* while pulling the brat down at the same time. He smiled at the loud moan that slipped free from Eren, and then hissed again when he swore that the damn brat did something to become even tighter. Closing his eyes for a moment, he lost himself in the sensation of that marvelous heat enveloping him, of the almost-pain skittering up and down his back that served as a counterbalance to the intense pleasure building inside of him.

He wanted to this to last, to hold out as long as possible, but it felt too good, felt too powerful. Eren was all wrapped around him, not just his body but his scent and his heat as well, seemed to sink into Levi until he even breathed him in. He tasted him on his tongue, drank in the sight of him with those huge eyes blown with passion, and thrust into him with a growing, erratic desperation as the pleasure and desire grew to an uncontrollable peak.

Letting out a curse, he tumbled Eren onto the bed, laying the brat out on his back with his ass in Levi’s lap as Levi continued to thrust in as hard and fast as he could. Eren had the gall to smirk up at him, at least until Levi pulled his hips up higher and then Eren’s back arched off of the bed as he cried out something indecipherable, his hand moving fast along his own cock. Feeling his encroaching orgasm, Levi snapped his hips back and forth with an added urgency, his fingers digging into sweat-slick flesh as the ecstasy built to an overwhelming crescendo and crashed into him.

It had been so long since he’d had an orgasm that intense, his senses scattered to the winds for what seemed a small eternity. Shivering in the aftershocks and dazed, he sensed as if from far away Eren crying out and tensing beneath him, causing more aftershocks of pleasure to course through him. He struggled to even out his breathing when he slipped out of that exquisite heat, groaning a little as he did so, and stretched out next to Eren.

His brain finally waking up, he patted the bed between them and grunted once. “Still intact?”

“Go to hell,” Eren mumbled as he brushed aside the hair on his face with his left hand. “Next time I’ll claw up your back instead of the damn bed.”

“It’ll heal, right? Go right ahead. Will be a damn sight easier than having to fill out a new order form and sit through Erwin’s questions.” He swore that the bastard had gotten off on that little session. As he lay there, he watched as the bruises he’d left on Eren’s hips slowly began to fade away.

“I’ll remind you of that.” Eren stretched a little, his arms raised above his head and his back again arched off of the bed, and let out a happy sounding sigh. “Oh, I so needed that.”

Levi was going to assume ‘that’ was what they’d just done and so took some of the credit. “You’re welcome.”

He got an eye roll for his troubles. “Thanks.”

Starting to feel itchy from the sweat and other things drying on his skin, Levi sat up and grimaced. “I need to wash off.”

“Hmm, okay.” Eren continued to lay there, busy playing with a strand of hair while Levi got off of the bed.

Was he supposed to offer for Eren to join him? He didn’t have the biggest shower, considering it was meant for one person, so Levi assumed that they could take turns. Or did Eren just not care about things like being all clean after sex? He didn’t seem like such a slob any other time….

Levi tried to figure out the brat while he gave himself a quick shower. Eren didn’t seem like much of a cuddler after sex, which was fine with him since he didn’t feel like putting up with all that crap. But to be so nonchalant? Was that normal?

Finished washing off and only bothering to dry off and then wrap a towel around his waist, Levi returned to the bedroom, only to find that it was empty; Eren wasn’t anywhere to be seen. At first he thought that the brat might have gone in search of something to drink, until Levi realized that there were no signs of his clothes, either. Still, he checked the rest of his quarters, only to come up empty.

It wasn’t as if he had any great plans for the rest of the night – there had been some idle thoughts of a round two of sex, either before going to bed or inviting Eren to spend the night and then having some fun after they woke up. Since this would be Levi’s first official cognizant night as a… whatever he was now, he thought it might be nice to have someone there to help prepare him for what to expect. But it looked like none of that would happen now.

Feeling out of sorts, he went to put on some clothes and then brewed himself a pot of tea since he wasn’t tired at all. Then he worked on some paperwork – or attempted to, only to find himself staring at the same report for ten minutes. Cursing a certain brat out loud, he got up from his desk and was out in the hallway before he realized what he was doing.

It had been years since he’d last visited the common room for the new recruits, and that had been over a discipline issue. He sort of had an idea of where Hange had assigned the siblings their new bunks, and went over to that area to begin searching for Eren; once he got close enough, he could track him down by scent alone. He was still getting used to his new abilities, but he knew Eren’s scent by now.

Upon coming across the little shit curled up in a bunk bed with Mikasa, the two of them wrapped up in each other’s arms, Levi felt… he felt something *dark* and *roiling* and *vicious* build inside of him. Again without thinking, he reached up into the bed to latch onto a twitching Eren’s arm and hauled him out of bed.

There was a loud, squalling sound as Eren came crashing into him, yet it wasn’t from the brat – Mikasa was up and awake, crouched on the bed and looking ready to launch herself at him, her eyes glowing gold and her lips pulled back to reveal her fangs.

Levi caught Eren and settled him onto his feet, yet kept hold of his arm. “Calm the fuck down, *Stieger*,” he ordered as the room came to life around them.

“Mikasa! Please!” Eren pleaded with his sister, taking a step in her direction before being yanked back.

“Let him go, you short bas-“

“No.” Levi put all of the venom and animosity he felt just then into the word, causing both of the idiots to look at him. “We weren’t finished, he’s coming back with me.”

All around them, people were whispering – or attempting to whisper – about ‘Captain Ackerman’ being there, about Mikasa being mouthy to him, so on and so forth. At least him snapping back at the bitch seemed to have startled her enough to revert her eyes back to normal.

“Now get your asses back to bed,” he ordered everyone, followed by a dirty look that sent those who were gathered around scurrying to obey – all except Armin, Ymir and Krista. Ymir gave him a saucy smile and then pointedly stared at Eren.

“Eren….”

“It’s fine,” Eren told his sister, and repeated it to Armin and Ymir, who hadn’t verbally asked anything. “Like he said, please go back to bed.” He finally looked at Levi, his jaw tight with anger. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Levi didn’t give a shit if the bastard was angry with him right now – it just meant they both were ticked off. “Come on.” He started dragging Eren out of the room.

For once not complaining over being led around like a dog, Eren was quiet until they reached Levi’s quarters. Once they were inside, Eren jerked his wrist free and then stood in the middle of the room, his arms folded across his chest. “So what the hell was that about?” His voice shook with anger, the emotion lighting up his eyes.

“That’s what I want to know!” Levi stabbed a finger in the brat’s direction. “I leave the room for five minutes – fuck, less than that! – and you’re gone without a word! Not only that, but you leave my bed for your *sister’s*? How fucking sick is that?”

Eren threw his hands up in the air as if disgusted. “We were sleeping – as in getting rest – together! Don’t make it out to be something sick! We always do that after… well, it’s just something we do.” His brows drew together and he ran his fingers through his hair.

Okay, were they speaking the same language? “You’re telling me that you fuck guys and then you go sleep with your sister?” Levi sat against the edge of his desk and tried to wrap his brain around this. “You honestly don’t see anything wrong with that picture?”

“Why would I? Mikasa is family, she’s always there for me. Who I fuck is just a body for an hour or two,” Eren told him, a puzzled expression on his face as if he couldn’t understand where Levi was going with this.

Just ‘a body’. Levi got a fucking ‘shovel talk’ from the charming Mikasa and yet Eren stood there and talked about how fucking someone was like… what, borrowing a cock for a short time? As fucked up as Levi was, he had a better grasp of relationships than that. “’Just a body’? Is that what I am? That why you clawed up my fucking bed and turned me into a bloodsucker like you,” he demanded to know as he surged forward, his hands reaching for the grey t-shirt that Eren had worn to bed.

Those golden eyes went wide as what Levi said sunk in to the idiot’s head. “What? No! I just-“ Eren didn’t shake off Levi’s hold, he just closed his eyes and let out a shuddering breath, his hands rising to rest on top of Levi’s. “Not you!”

“Then why the hell did you run out of here and go straight to your sister?”

Eren slumped against him, his body warm and supine; Levi wanted to pull him close, to bury his nose in that tangled mess of hair but forced himself to remain still until he got a decent answer from the little shit. “Because… because I didn’t think. I didn’t think you’d care, I didn’t think it mattered, and I didn’t think about how things are different now.”

“Because you’re a fucking idiot,” Levi summed up with a good bit of satisfaction.

Eren stiffed against him for a second or two before relaxing again. “Yeah, all right, I’ll give you that one.” He rubbed his cheek against Levi’s shoulder like a cat marking its scent. “Look, this whole thing is confusing as hell to me. I’ve no clue what I’m doing.”

Like Levi did either, but he knew better than to go off running to another person’s bed after sex. Still, he figured he’d be the adult here since one of them needed to be it and keep his mouth shut. “I think you owe me a massage, then.”

There was some grumbling for a few seconds, followed by another cheek rub that should be annoying but was actually not. “Okay. Tonight?”

“No, for some reason I’m oddly relaxed right now.” Levi finally gave in to the urge to comb his fingers through that ratty hair and sighed. “Right now you can make up the bed for me.”

“You’re not enjoying this at all, are you?” Eren pulled back to glare at him, but a smile kept twitching at the corners of his lips.

“Enjoying what? You making up for being an enormous asshole? Perish the thought.” Levi gave him a smack on the ass and pointed toward the bedroom. “Now get in there.”

“Yeah, well, enjoy it while it lasts. It’ll just be a matter of time before you do something just as spectacularly stupid if not more so.” Eren looked as if he was just waiting for that moment.

The shame was, the little shit was right. Levi rubbed at the back of his head and swore to get some more of that damn vodka off of Hange in the morning so he’d have it on hand for that occasion. And to kick her in the ass for talking him into this whole ‘relationship’ thing.

*******

Eren lay in the bed beside Levi and struggled not to fidget, unused to sleeping with anyone other than Mikasa or Armin. He’d managed to fall asleep eventually, but hadn’t slept as long as usual and now was uncertain about what he was supposed to do – should he remain in bed even though he wasn’t asleep? Would it piss off the short-tempered bastard if he got up and went into the other room? What could he do in Levi’s quarters while the man slept? Confused and a little disgruntled by the whole situation, he continued to lie there, barely moving and staring at the sleeping man.

Levi appeared so young when he was asleep, his face relaxed with sleep and unmarred by anger, worry or that damn mask of indifference. Eren ached to reach out and touch him, to tuck back the shiny black hair falling onto his forehead, to stroke along a curving cheekbone or a parted lip. The sheets were pushed down to Levi’s waist, revealing the sculpted muscles of his shoulders, arms, chest and abdomen, his pale skin marred by shadows and old scars. Eren could remember the feel of those scars beneath his fingers, the bumps and catch of them as his hands had run along Levi’s back and chest, his fingers digging into firm flesh as Levi had thrust into him-

His breath caught at the memory and he pressed his flushed face into the sheets that smelled of the two of them. Being with Levi was such a bewildering thing – usually fucking somebody meant that he was done with wanting them, that he’d gotten what he needed and could move on. But now… now he was lying next to the man and wanted more, despite having him twice last night. Why?

“Oi, shitty brat. Stop fidgeting too much.”

Levi sounded sleepy, though he didn’t look too tired when Eren glanced over at him. He was rubbing his eyes and frowning, his eyes clear when he finally opened them to stare at Eren. “What time is it?”

“Uhm, about…” Eren shifted up enough to glance at the clock behind Levi, “03:00.”

“Fuck.” Levi flopped onto his back and shook his head. “You weren’t kidding about that ‘won’t sleep too much’ shit, were you?”

“No, I wasn’t.” Eren sat up in the bed, the sheets pooling onto his lap. “We usually sleep two or three hours a night, that’s all.”

“I don’t sleep much more than that some nights, but I normally feel like shit. Now… it’s not bad.” Levi frowned up at the ceiling for a few seconds before his expression smoothed out. “Should help with getting the damn paperwork done.”

“That sounds terribly exciting.” Eren made a face while smoothed out the fabric covering his legs. “All that extra time, wasted on paperwork.”

Levi stretched out his arm to give Eren a smack on his thigh. “Some of us have jobs to do.”

“Whatever.” He fell back onto bed and let out a sigh. “Some of us are stuck inside headquarters with almost nothing to do.” He held up his right hand and flexed his claws as he spoke. “I really should be out there-“

“No.” Levi lifted his head to glare at Eren. “No way in fucking hell. Can’t you grasp the damn concept that they’re ready to tear the dome apart to get your ass?”

“So I should be out there fighting them!”

“No!” The bed shifted as Levi sat up next to him. “It won’t be forever. We’ll hunt down those assholes.”

Yeah, because Eren and Mikasa had done so well on that front for centuries, hadn’t they? And here Levi thought he’d take Annie’s head so easily? Still, he didn’t say anything else, just kept flexing his claws, his eyes half-focused on his fingers.

“Oi! You wake up in a shitty mood or what?” When Eren didn’t answer, Levi poked him in the side.

Letting his hand fall back to the bed, Eren sighed and rolled onto his side so he could face the annoying asshole. “I told Ymir that I’d turn Krista today,” he admitted to Levi, paying close attention to the man’s expression to see how he’d take the news.

If it bothered Levi at all, the asshole didn’t show any emotion other than the usual boredom. “Huh, guess she finally wore you down,” was all he said after several seconds.

“Wow, thanks so much for that helpful insight there – we really need to have these riveting discussions more often,” Eren snapped as he rolled onto his other side to put his back to Levi.

There was a rustle of sheets and then Eren was pushed onto his back while Levi straddled his hips, a pissed-off look on the man’s face. “So what do you want me to do about it? Kick her ass for making you do this? Tell you not to go through with it even though you’re supposed to be a grown up? What? It sure as hell won’t be to let you out there with a fucking target on your back to make you feel better.”

Eren glared at the asshole and made to push him away, but Levi caught his hand and held on tight. “None of those things, all right? I just….” He closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. “You asked what’s bothering me and I told you. I don’t know if it’ll work, me turning someone on… on demand like that.” He opened his eyes and looked up at Levi. “Before, it’s always been me reacting.”

Levi stared back for several seconds before clicking his tongue. “Fine then, if you don’t think it’s going to work then we’ll feed the girl one of Hange’s shitty formulas. That’ll have her dying in minutes.”

The insanity of it all stunned Eren for a moment, and then he started laughing. Levi’s expression remained impassive at first, and then he slowly became smug while Eren continued to laugh. When he finally did regain control of himself, Eren shook his head and bucked his hips in an effort to dislodge the crazy bastard. “You’re really not much of a help.”

“I’m the biggest damn help you’ve ever had,” Levi insisted.

“Hmm.” Eren gave him a salacious smile and bucked his hips again, this time with less force. “You’re definitely the biggest damn something I’ve ever had,” he drawled, and almost laughed again at the way Levi’s grey eyes narrowed over the insinuation.

“That sounds a little doubtful to me. Time to improve your memory, brat.” Levi bent down, his eyes shading into gold.

Eren shivered when he felt first warm breath and then soft lips brush against his neck. “What… about the paperwork?”

“I’d say ‘fuck the paperwork’, but that’s not what I’ll be fucking,” Levi all but purred into his ear.

There might be something to say for this whole ‘sleeping with people’ thing, Eren told himself as Levi began to nibble on his earlobe.

*******

“No, seriously, Captain Ackerman *dragged* him out of bed! And this is after he ran from the man’s room naked! Do you think the captain is abusing his authority or something? He’s always been a mean control freak!”

“All I know is I messed up gauntlet training one day and he made me run around headquarters for FIVE HOURS. The man’s a sadistic bastard, I’m telling you.”

“At least you didn’t have to clean the *entire lower level*. I spent two days down there, inhaling dirt and dead spiders.”

“Do you think he tried to get Stieger to do something too kinky? Like dress up in something weird? What would Captain Ackerman consider kinky?”

“Did you see the ass on that kid? No wonder he hauled him back to his room – I’d be tapping that all night long.”

Mikasa’s teeth ground together as she forced herself to take deep, calming breaths in an effort to not reveal her true nature or start beating up on the uncouth idiots she had agreed to fight beside for the foreseeable future. Her hands gripped the plastic polymer of the serving tray that held her breakfast hard enough to start cracking it, prompting a worried look from Armin.

“Uhm, it’s just talk, you know. Give it a day or two and they’ll be gossiping about something else.”

“They’re *gossiping* about Eren *now*,” she pointed out, her voice a low growl as the colors bled out of everything but the targets for her anger. Deep breaths, she told herself. Keep taking deep breaths. For some odd reason it would be bad for her to start tearing out the throats of idiots….

“Yes, and soon enough they’ll be gossiping about something else, like Captain Hange’s latest experiment or who messed up the most at training.” Armin grinned for a moment and then winced. “Though it’ll help if Eren keeps his clothes on and Captain Ackerman stops paying midnight visits.”

*Deep* *breaths*. “You’re really not helping.”

“Yeah, I get that impression a lot lately.” There was a flash of sadness on Armin’s face for a moment before he forced a too cheerful smile. “But I do my best.”

Feeling guilty for some reason, Mikasa struggled with a smile as well. “You do more than that.” With all that had happened lately, she felt as if she’d shamefully neglected her dear friend. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

They reached their usual table, which had some blaring spots open in it this morning. Mina was surrounded by friends, a woeful expression on her face whenever she glanced at where Daz usually sat, and Mikasa noticed that Eren still hadn’t arrived. What was the Short Bastard doing to him?

Sasha was already there, and grinned when she saw the two of them approach and paused in her frantic eating of the greyish, lumpy oatmeal served that day. “Hi! I wasn’t sure if you would make it or not.” She motioned to the empty spots around her. “It seems like everyone else is sleeping in or something.”

By ‘everyone else’, she must be talking about Ymir and Krista, who were missing as well. Thinking of the vampire and what she’d managed to force out of Eren finally, Mikasa stared down at her tray of food until she was certain that she had control of her emotions. “Yes, well, it’s been a crazy day or two.” And not likely to get much better.

“I’ll say! Connie can’t believe everything that’s happening!” Sasha’s smile took on a goofy edge and she even lowered her spoon all the way to the table. “He said it’s much more interesting here than at the MP headquarters.” She was quiet for a moment and then jabbed her spoon in Mikasa’s direction. “Speaking of Connie – he said that Jean’s being all mopey because of how your last date ended.”

Caught by surprise over the change in topic, Mikasa paused in sipping her coffee and stared at the girl. “Jean?” She hadn’t given the young man much thought in the last two days, not with everything happening with Eren, Captain Ackerman and Ymir. The sense of guilt intensified, causing her cheeks to heat up as she blushed. “Uhm, I’m very sorry about that.”

“Connie said that Jean knows you had a reason to run off like that, that family’s important and all, but you shouldn’t let a nice guy like him hang for so long.” At Mikasa’s blank stare, Sasha sighed and shook her head. “Give him a call or something, make another date if you’re not blowing him off, all right? Jean really likes you, and Connie’s getting tired of hearing him whine about how he hopes that you’re not breaking things off with him.”

“Yes, Mikasa, it’s not nice to be so rude to someone,” Armin teased, which prompted her to jab her elbow into his ribs.

She had to think about this – Jean really was a nice guy and she did have some feelings for him even though they’d only gone out a couple of times. She’d started the ‘dates’ with the intent on finding more information about Annie Bertolt and Reiner, which she’d done, but Jean had proved interesting in his own right. Glancing at Armin, she knew that her friend would encourage her to continue seeing the MP, and Eren wouldn’t have much to say against it considering the mess he was involved in with that short bastard.

“Mika~sa~?” Sasha asked in a singsong tone, waving her spoon back and forth as if conducting to some unknown beat. “Are you going to contact Jean and put him out of his misery?”

“… all right.” Maybe she’d regret this, but at least she’d be sorry over doing something rather than doing nothing.

“Yay! Connie said he knows this great place we can go on our next double date!” Sasha started to babble about food menus, so Mikasa tuned her out while pushing over most of her uneaten breakfast. Beside her, Armin chuckled beneath his breath, which earned him another jab in the ribs.

*******

“Just think, soon enough you’ll be able to see a real sunrise,” Ymir told Krista as they watched the lights slowly brighten out across the dome, both perched up on the ledge on the top of building to the Freedom Corps’ headquarters.

“A shame when you’ll be hiding in the shade somewhere.” Krista lifted her head from where it rested against Ymir’s shoulder and smile. “But at least you’ll be able to watch it with me somewhat.

“Yes.” Ymir smiled down at her and leaned in to place a kiss against her forehead. “You’ll be so lucky, to feel sunlight on your skin whenever you want.” Sometimes she dreamt about it, about the warmth of it, how *clean* it felt, and woke up with such a longing….

“I’ve always wanted to go out into the wilderness.” Krista closed her eyes and hummed for a few seconds. “I felt bad that you haven’t been able to go there these last few decades.”

“Better to keep you safe than to play around with the overgrown kitties and pigs, darling. You’ll see them for yourself soon enough.” She hugged her girlfriend close and mentally counted down the minutes until breakfast would be over and Eren would come through with his promise.

Krista hugged her back and sighed. “Everything will be all right now, won’t it? You won’t have to worry so much?”

“Everything will be fine,” Ymir lied, and closed her eyes as she held on tightly to the only thing in the world that truly mattered to her. Just a little longer and Krista would be safe. The damn comm seemed to burn against her left hip, and she knew that it wouldn’t be long before it chimed again, before Reiner told her what she would have to do in order to keep Krista safe. Eren was doing this for her, and she’d pay him back with the ultimate betrayal.

But what else could she do? It was bad enough that Krista suspected something, and had mostly been put off with the story that Ymir was stressed over the vampire attacks and pushing for her to be changed. All Ymir could do was get through today, to see Krista turned into something stronger, something able to survive what was coming and then do her best to handle whatever it was that the vampires threw at her. She was good at surviving – they all were. And by going along with Annie’s demands seemed like the best way to ensure just that – everyone’s survival.

At least that’s what she kept telling herself.

*******

“Was the recent attack truly necessary? I’ve had ministers screaming about damages and how this is negatively affecting the dome’s reputation ever since the attack.”

Annie stared at Minister Zackly and struggled to keep the distaste she felt from having to deal with the pathetic human from showing on her face, instead settling on the usual impassive mask that she wore when she was forced to interact with his kind. Did he truly believe that she cared about what he put up with in his job? That he believed that she should curb her actions to make his life easier?

“Yes, the attack was necessary. Everything we do is necessary,” she reminded the fool. “We wouldn’t do it otherwise.”

“But the attack caused a lot of panic and cost-“

“It was necessary,” she insisted. “We achieved a very important goal.”

“And that was what?” The elderly man leaned over his desk with his hands pressed firmly against it as if in an attempt to intimidate her – as if he could scare her with his height and his ‘strength’. Oh, he ‘knew’ what she was, but he still took her at face value, still saw her as a small young woman who just happened to have something he wanted, and that was immortality – or as close to it as you could get.

“The ability to turn you and the others into what I am,” she reminded him. “Isn’t that what you want?”

Zackly hovered over his desk, his wrinkled face set in stern lines, and then shifted back. “I fail to see how such an action brings us closer to our… arrangement.”

Because he was an ignorant fool. “All you need to know is that we are working on obtaining what is needed to turn those who have been accommodating to us and will soon be able to reward you for your loyalty. But before that can happen, one or two more demonstrations will be needed in the near future.” She reached into her jacket to pull out a datapad, which she set down on the desk. “There are certain… elements which have become very annoying, and it will be in both of our best interests if they’re curbed before they get too far ahead of themselves.”

“Threats to you and your masters are threats to us as well.” Zackly picked up the datapad but didn’t turn it on.

Annie inwardly bristled at the ‘masters’ comment but didn’t argue over it. “It’s wise of you to see it that way. Follow the instructions and you know what to expect. Fail to comply and….” She gave him a smile with her fangs on full display. “Good day, Minister.”

Having finished with that task, she left the office, careful to slip out using in back stairwell that was reserved for private staff. Now that a ‘distraction’ was arranged for the Survey Corps, it wouldn’t be long before Eren would be extracted from his safe little nest and they could be well rid of this awful dome with its stale air and annoying humans. Just a little longer.

*******


	21. Carnivore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yet another chapter. Bit of a calm before the storm....
> 
> As always, thanks for the kudos and comments!  
> *******

*******

Levi entered Hange’s lab to find Ymir and Krista already there, huddled together near one of the workstations and whispering to each other. Both were dressed in their uniforms as if it were a normal day, sans weapons and gauntlets, though Krista’s hair was pulled back in a fancy braid which allowed for several small sensors to be placed on her forehead and face. He granted the two some peace and went over to Hange, who was bent over some weird instrument panel. “Really? You had to bug the girl?”

“Since a certain *someone* got turned unexpectedly, I have to seize the opportunity where I can!” Hange stood up straight and put her hands on her bony hips. “There’s no way I’m letting this chance pass me by – what changes happen when a person technically dies and then becomes a new form of life? How does the brain rewire itself? Metabolic and cellular changes? I need to *know*,” she wailed.

Yeah, well, better Krista than him, he supposed. “You’re such a shitty pervert.”

“I’m a scientist, it’s often the same thing.” She waved him off while she fiddled with a few settings. “Speaking of perverts, where’s your cutie? I hope you didn’t leave him chained to the bed since he’s very important to this little party today.”

Gritting his teeth over Hange’s babbling, Levi struggled to not ‘fang out’ and answered when he felt himself to be in control. “He went off to get changed and should be here soon.”

“Ah.” Hange fussed with another setting and straightened up again. “I heard about last night, you know.” An evil grin spread across her face. “Gossip just travels like mad through this place, and everyone was talking about how Captain Ackerman dragged poor little Stieger back to his room last night over breakfast this morning. A breakfast that you two skipped, I have to add.” She cackled when Levi took to glaring over that bit of news. “So, you scare him away already or what?”

“No!” He felt the fangs come out regardless of his wishes and cursed beneath his breath. “Damn brat has some weird sister-issues - let’s just say I’m beginning to see why Mikasa is all ‘me, me, me’ about him,” he added when Hange’s eyes got a little too bright. There was no way he was going into it with the nosy freak.

“So how’s the sex? Is it better since you’ve turned? Faster refractory rate with the increased healing ability?” Hange dared to reach out and poke Levi in the chest while he stood there stunned. “Increased stamina? Would you say you can last longer or not much at all because of the enhanced senses affecting your ple-“

“Oi! Do *not* even go there, you shit for brains!” He reached out to smack her on top of the head, remembering just in time about his increased strength.

“But Levi, it’s for the sake of science!”

“It’s for the sake of your sick curiosity.” He threatened to smack her again despite the pathetic manner in which she sniffed and cowered.

“What’s for the sake of science and sick curiosity?”

So wrapped up in Hange’s bullshit, he hadn’t even noticed that Eren had entered the lab, with Mikasa his ever-present shadow. The little shit was dressed in white pants and a grey jersey, as usual these days, with Mikasa ready to go out on patrol behind him, her scarf pulled up to hide her face; Levi would guess that she wasn’t too happy with what was about to happen. Eren’s hair was its usual mess, the strands damp to show that he must have just come from the shower, and a slight smile brightened his face.

Clicking his tongue, Levi motioned him closer. “I swear, I’m going to cut off this mess while you sleep.” He reached out to comb his fingers through the cool strands until they fell into some sort of semblance of neatness. Amusement bubbled up in him as a thought occurred to him, which he did his best to hide.

Eren closed his eyes and hummed for a few seconds. “Yeah, that’s a great idea, approaching me with something sharp while I sleep. Great way to keep your bed in one piece.” His smile strengthened when he opened his eyes. “So what *were* you two talking about?”

Before Levi could get out a warning, Hange latched on to the brat’s arm, her eyes as bright as any maniac’s and an even more demented grin on her face than usual. “Yes! You can help me out! So how was he, eh? Was there a marked improvement in his sexual prowess after the chan- ack!”

“Back off, you four-eyed freak,” Levi snarled as he gave her a kick to the shin to drive her off. Meanwhile, he swore that Mikasa growled.

Eren blinked those huge eyes of his a couple of times as if stunned by the question, and then an evil grin spread across his face. “Weeelll,” he drawled out while glancing at Levi. “I’ve… got no complaints.”

“Damn right you don’t,” Levi muttered, the same time that Mikasa grunted out something along the lines of ‘better not’. The two of them glowered at each other while Eren laughed and Hange pulled out her notebook.

“I’m glad for your sake that Levi’s skills are perfunctory, but *details* would be appreciated.”

“’Perfunctory’?” Levi broke off the staring contest with Mikasa so he could turn his attention on the soon to be dead crazy person in the room. “Perfunctory my ass! I had him-“

“Hey! Can we stop with the ego-stroking and get down to business here,” Ymir called out. “You can put on the kinky demonstrations *after* Eren does his damn job, okay?” She stood a step or two away from Krista, who was sitting on top of the workstation, with a furious expression on her freckled face and her eyes glowing a fiery red.

All signs of Eren’s good mood faded and he shuffled closer to Levi. “Yeah, all right.” He scrubbed at his face and tangled his hair even more by running his fingers through it. “Let’s… let’s get this over with, all right?” Mikasa reached out to touch his left arm, which prompted a sad smile for her. “It’s okay, let’s just do it.”

Levi didn’t think it really was ‘okay’ with Eren, but for some reason he wanted to go ahead with it so Levi just tucked back the thick chunk of hair that had fallen onto Eren’s face. The sad smile was then directed his way, and for a moment he felt the urge to kiss those slightly upturned lips but he was unable to move before Eren stepped away.

“I assume that you want me to do this, Krista,” Eren called out as he approached the two women.

“Yes!” Krista held her head high with apparent defiance, her eyes shining and a shaky smile on her face. “Yes, I do.” She held one of Ymir’s hands clasped between her own.

“You do realize that this might not work? That you might be better off just drinking Ymir’s blood?” There was a harsh edge to Eren’s voice and his eyes began to glow – just then he didn’t seem so young or carefree, didn’t seem at all like a kid as he *stalked* forward, his face set with a terrible resolution.

There was an audible gulp from Krista yet she nodded, and Ymir gave Eren a truly nasty look for attempting to rattle her girlfriend. “What the hell, Rebel? She said that she wanted this.”

“And *I’m* the one who’ll be sucking her dry until her heart stops beating, so pardon me if I make sure we’re all on the same page here,” he shot back, his teeth bared in a sign of aggression. “I don’t like killing humans.”

“Funny, that’s not what I-“

“Ymir,” Mikasa hissed, her eyes glowing bright and her claws out. “Do you really think I can’t take you down?”

Ymir eyed Mikasa for a few seconds, her own eyes burning a pure red, until Krista tugged at her hand. “It’s all right,” she whispered to her girlfriend before looking around the room. “I want this,” she called out. “Now can we do this before a stupid fight breaks out?”

Ymir and Mikasa continued to eye each other like a pair of cats about to claw the other up, but finally looked away when Eren approached the workstation. “Ymir, you need to get this started.”

Forcing her attention away from Mikasa, Ymir stared at Eren for a moment before she nodded. “Okay.” She faced Krista and gave her a sweet smile then leaned in for a kiss. When she pulled away, she gently stroked Krista’s cheek with the back of her right hand. “It’ll hurt for moment.”

“That’s all right, it’ll be worth it,” Krista assured her as she began to unbutton the neck of her shirt.

Beside Levi, Hange made a squeaky noise and then rushed back to her range of instruments. “Oh! I have to see what happens!”

For himself, Levi was more interested in watching Eren than in Ymir – he’d seen enough people get bit over the years, even though Ymir was doing it with more grace and gentleness than any of the Malforms had ever done to their victims. Fuck, she was being a lot more nice about it than that blonde bitch had been the other day in tearing out his throat, he thought as he rubbed at his perfectly healed throat. Still, he had to wonder if Eren had ever been on the receiving end of a bite, considering the way those golden eyes darkened and his lips pressed together as Ymir laid Krista back down on the workstation and lowered her mouth to the girl’s neck. Hadn’t he said something about a Malform attack causing his change? How bad had it been?

Krista cried out a little when Ymir began to drink, her hands cradling Ymir’s head to her neck as an awful sucking sound filled the room. Eren stood a few feet away while it went on, his eyes glowing faintly and fixed on the couple, while Mikasa stood beside him with her hand resting on his shoulder. Part of Levi wanted to be there as well, wanted to shove Mikasa away and take her place, but this was partially his fault, wasn’t it? If he hadn’t been turned then Eren wouldn’t have been guilt-tripped into turning Krista as well, so he stood near Hange while the lunatic made happy squealing noises and pushed various buttons.

After what felt to be way too fucking long, Eren shook off Mikasa’s hand and approached the workstation. “Ymir.” When that failed to get the vampire’s attention, he reached over Krista’s still body and shoved Ymir away. “That’s enough.”

Ymir hissed at him, the savage sound made all the grim by the display of her bloody fangs, but Eren bared his own teeth at her until she blinked her glowing red eyes several times and then shook her head. “What – is it-“

“My turn now,” was all he told her before leaning over Krista. He paused a moment, his mouth partially opened, and then seemed to force himself to continue descending until his lips pressed against the unmarked side of the girl’s neck. A few seconds later the sucking sound resumed.

Ymir took a step toward him, her claws out as if to tear at him, but both Levi and Mikasa rushing forward seemed to scare some sense into her. She whined for a moment and jumped back, her hands held in the air, and shook her head. “All right, all right.”

“Leave him alone,” Mikasa warned. “He’s doing what you wanted.”

“I know.” Ymir wiped her bloody mouth with the sleeve of her jacket, causing Levi to cringe at the sight. “I know,” she repeated, sounding exhausted.

“Fuck *me*, these readings!” Hange did some weird type of dance and pumped her fists into the air. “Levi, can I have your cu-“

“*No*,” he told the lunatic, already knowing what she was going to ask. “Hands off, he’s mine.” He stared down the dirty look Mikasa gave him for the answer. What the hell was that shovel talk then?

“But I just want to-“

“NO!”

“Sheesh, give you a little sex and you get so possessive,” she grumbled as she tweaked a few settings. “Not like I was going to dissect him or anything… not right away….”

Feeling a headache coming on, Levi pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose and tried to focus on what the hell Eren was doing, which was sucking on some girl across the room. Ymir was back to hovering over the two of them, looking as if she was one twitch away from tearing out Eren’s spine, so Levi left Hange alone with her instruments and started circling the *other* psychotic bitch in the room. He was a few steps away when Eren suddenly pushed himself away from Krista’s prone body, his mouth bloody and his eyes shadowed.

“Okay, it’s done.”

“Yep, she’s totally flatlined now!” Hange sounded much too cheerful about that.

Ymir rushed over to Krista’s side and began to stroke her bangs. “When will we know?”

Eren wiped at his mouth with the back of his right hand and grimaced. “Eh, Levi turned really quickly – I think it was because of my and Mikasa’s blood in him, so I don’t think it’ll take long for Krista since she’s been drinking yours.” He started when Levi handed him a towel so he could clean himself, a faint smile chasing some of the shadows away. “Thanks.”

“Soon,” Ymir murmured as she stared down at her girlfriend’s face.

“I’m definitely getting some *fascinating* readings here,” Hange called out. “I think something is happening, though what she’s changing into, I can’t tell.”

If Levi was close enough he’d smack the moron for that ‘what’ bit, but just then he had his hands full with a certain brat. “You all right?”

Eren cocked his head to the side as if he had to think about the answer. “Maybe.” He glanced at Krista, indicating that it depended on what happened to the girl.

Mikasa stroked her hand along his arm. “It’s what they wanted, whatever happens,” she assured him. “It’s not your fault.”

Yeah, like it looked as if Eren was going to buy that. Annoyed at the idiot’s thinking, Levi clicked his tongue twice and then reached up for a handful of tousled dark strands so he could pull Eren into a kiss; he started at first at the taste of blood on the brat’s tongue, the flavor weak and watery after drinking from a Malform the night before, but pushed past it when Eren began to kiss him back. As distractions went, it worked almost too well – Levi was able to forget about bitchy Mikasa standing just a couple feet away as well as everything else except for Eren holding on to him, so warm and insistent against him, until a high-pitched squeal made him cringe in pain.

“Amazing! Fucking amazing!”

They broke off the kiss in time to see steam rising from Krista’s neck, where the Eren and Ymir had ‘fed’. Looming over the oblivious girl was a weeping Ymir, who alternated between bending down to kiss her forehead and standing up to watch the wounds heal and color slowly seep back in to Krista’s skin.

“You did it, Eren.”

Eren glanced back at Mikasa and nodded once. “Yeah.” He didn’t sound too happy about it, though.

“These readings are… are… Oh, I want to make love to them! They’re my babies! My precious, precious babies!” Hange was stroking the instrument panel in a truly obscene way.

Levi grabbed Eren’s hand and tugged him toward the door. “Okay, time to leave the crazy person alone,” he warned. “Erwin gets pissed off when I tranq her ass. Stuff about wasted man hours.”

Staring at Hange as if terrified that she’d start touching him next, Eren nodded and meekly followed along, with Mikasa close by. “Can we lock her in or something?”

“Nah, she just uses acid to eat through the lock, which also pisses off Erwin and makes him dock the cost of the new door from your salary.” Levi heaved a loud sigh once they were safely out of the lab. “Why do you think she’s still alive? Erwin gets real tetchy about excessive force against her for some damn reason.”

“Your life is so hard,” Mikasa muttered, and pretended to ignore the nasty look that Levi gave her. “So what now?” She stood a little *too* close to Eren for Levi’s comfort. “Do you want to come with me while I help train with Captain Zacharias?”

Levi cut in before Eren got a chance to respond to the offer. “No, he’s coming with me – I need to practice with my new… gear.” He held up his left hand and waggled his fingers about even as his right hand latched onto Eren’s wrist.

Mikasa looked pissed at having her plans to hijack her baby brother derailed, especially when Eren smiled and shook his head. “He really needs the practice, if what he said about last night is true. See you later?”

“I promised Jean a date before I go out on my patrol.” She frowned at Levi for a few seconds before turning her attention back to Eren. “You’ll probably be with *him* later, won’t you?”

“Ah, yeah.” A slight blush reddened Eren’s cheeks and he scratched at the back of his head, tousling his hair even more. “Don’t… uhm, I probably won’t be back at the room tonight.”

“No, you won’t,” Levi informed the two, tired of being talked about as if he wasn’t present. “It’s a new rule – he stays with whomever he’s fucking,” he told Mikasa with a hint of a smirk on his face.

It was difficult to tell if she was more disgusted or furious at the moment, and he half-expected her to lash out in a fit of temper, yet all she did after a few seconds was tug up the scarf over the bottom half of her face and lean in to give Eren a quick hug before leaving.

“So fun, she is.”

Eren sighed and rubbed at his chest. “Do you have to deliberately antagonize her like that?”

Levi snorted at the brat’s petulant tone. “Like she doesn’t go out of her way to stir up shit with me. Now come on, I want to be prepared for the next time I go out on patrol.” He’d still be using his gauntlet and the wires when out with the rest of the Corps, but he wanted to be able to use his claws the next time he came across those bastard vampires. Wouldn’t they be in for a surprise, then?

At least he’d gotten some practice in this morning on how to control the damn things, while waiting for everyone else to wake up. He smiled at Eren while he wrapped his fingers around his wrist, just at the pulse point, and flexed his claws a tiny amount. “Now are you coming?”

For the first time since they had entered Hange’s lab, Eren gave him a true smile, one that lit up his face and stripped away that sense of extreme age from him. Then the smile took on a wicked edge and he bumped into Levi’s side. “I thought we were going to do some training.”

It took him a moment to catch on to the innuendo. “One thing at a time.” He was smiling himself as he pulled the little shit along.

*******

Armin prowled around the area where he’d run into Annie before, going up about half a block before turning around and stalking along in the opposite direction; he hadn’t wanted to sit in the lab and watch Krista be turned, had wanted to feel as if he was doing *something*, so here he was, hoping to run into someone who probably would kill him for being so annoying and forward. Yet he couldn’t stop the questions that buzzed inside of his head, the changes that were pushing his friends to go to such extremes.

He was starting to garnish odd looks from the shopkeepers along the block because of his frantic pacing when he finally spotted a familiar pair of heads. Coming to a halt, he waited for Annie and her partner to approach; he knew when Annie noticed him from the way her head shot up and her small body stiffened, the shoulders clad in the MP black and green pushed back from the casual slouch she’d affected. She said something to her partner that sent the other young woman off into one of the stores and then she approached him with an obvious wariness.

“One can tell that you were raised by Eren and Mikasa – you have just about as much a sense of preservation as they do,” she called out to him when she was a few feet away.

“I don’t know, I think they do a good job of it if you consider how long they’ve lasted,” he pointed out, switching to an older dialect of English so they could speak more freely. “They’re certainly older than most people.”

“They’re alive because we want them alive.” Annie’s hands clenched into fists for a moment and then unfurled, the fingers forced out flat as if she refused to give in to the anger. “There’s no such orders in regard to *you*.” She regarded him coldly, as if he was an obstacle to be removed.

“We all have to die sometime,” was all he said in regard to the threat. He’d faced down death that awful day with his grandfather even if he’d been nothing more than a child, and while Eren and Mikasa had always been there to protect him had come close to dying several other times in his fifty-six years of life. Years that he’d been able to enjoy in the prime of good health and youth, so he had no unnecessary fears of dying, not if it meant something. Not if he did it trying to help his friends.

Annie stared flatly at him for several seconds before looking away. “You’re a fool, Armin Arlert.”

“Yes, most likely.”

“What do you want? Don’t tell me you came here to see if I’d dull my claws on you.” She folded her arms over her chest and affected a bored manner. “Hoping that I’ll do something foolish in public?”

He smiled a little at her scornful tone and shook his head. “No, though it’s not a bad plan. I’ve just been wondering about the attack the other day and what you hoped to gain – you had to have used up a lot of resources and for what? You didn’t push hard enough to break the seal, not really, so that wasn’t your real goal. If you wanted to capture Mikasa then the three of you would have been there since she’s too good of a fighter to go down from just one on one. Yet from all accounts only you were there, and you only fought Captain Ackerman.” He paused for a moment and studied Annie, the way she was so determinedly nonchalant. “Eren and Mikasa warned me about you, about how good a fighter you are and how ruthless you can be. If you wanted the man dead, he would have been so within seconds. But he was left alive long enough for Mikasa to keep going and to get him to Eren.”

Annie shrugged, her arms still folded over her chest, and refused to meet his gaze. “I was busy – it’s not easy to control all of those Malform.”

So it was as he’d expected. “Too busy to properly tear out a man’s throat?”

She heaved a loud sigh and finally looked at him, a hint of annoyance in the way her lips pressed together. “What does it matter?”

“Because this has something to do with Eren, something about-“

She reached out to flick him on the forehead with her fingers before he could even react to her moving. “You idiot, it always has something to do with Eren!” As if startled by how loud her voice had become, she shook her head and shifted back a little while he rubbed his sore forehead. “He has what we need. What *we* need, and we’re not used to needing very much.” Her expression grew bleak for a moment, until she shook her head again and then the flatness returned.

Armin felt the urge to reach out to her, to touch her arm, to do *something*. Why did he get the impression that she was so unhappy and alone? “But you don’t need Eren – well, not that much. I tried to tell you that if we work together and find Grisha Jaeger’s research that there’s a good chance that-“

He was startled to hear Annie laugh, even if the sound was so bitter and mocking. She didn’t laugh for long, and the look she gave him was one full of pity. “Really, you’re trying that again?” She huffed a little as she ran a hand over her slicked back hair. “What will happen if there is a cure for… well, for us? You think we can stop being what we are after *centuries*? After being the predator for so long instead of the prey? After being so used to pain that we think nothing of falling down from a building or being run through with a blade? How do you go back to being normal after all of that?”

All right, so maybe he didn’t think this the whole way through, he’d just latched on to a peaceful solution to his friends being hunted down and used. “Is what you have right now so much better,” he dared to ask.

For a moment he thought that perhaps he’d pushed too far, that Annie would give in to the anger that flashed across her face and forget that they were out in the public, that people hustled on past them. Then her face became blank once more and she shoved her hands behind her back as if to put temptation carefully out of reach. “If I were you, Arlert, I’d go back to your nice, safe headquarters and stay there. It’s not safe to roam around. You’re a fool to seek me out and it’s not going to change *anything*.”

“Maybe not,” he admitted with a growing sense of weariness. “But I have to try – they’re family.”

“They’re just two strangers who happened across you one day and felt sorry for you – continued acquaintance with them is going to get you killed.”

Was this her way of warning him? Or just a painful jab in return for him bringing up stuff she’d rather not think about? Either way, he tilted his head to the side and gave her an assessing look. “It’s rather funny hearing you say something like that – I would have thought you’d grasp the concept of ‘family’ considering your own little group. Why else stay together so long and through so much?” He began to walk away after that, deliberately exposing his back to her.

There was silence for several steps. “You can’t change anything, Arlert!” Annie’s voice sounded rough with suppressed emotions.

“You never know until you try,” he called back without looking over his shoulder. When nothing else was said and nothing struck him down, he let out a shaky breath and hurried back to headquarters.

*******

Levi’s claws ached from the long practice session, but it felt good in an odd way; it would take a while to get used to the concept of using them to climb up walls and grasp surfaces rather than fire off a wire and swing about, but he had to admit they were useful things. The most difficult part to comprehend was that he could slam into walls and fall – within reason – and his body would heal at an astonishing rate, the pain only momentary. He’d caught a glimpse of that last night but had been too wrapped up in the feeding frenzy, but today had been different when he’d *seen* the wall and the floor and even the *ceiling* the one time rushing toward him. He swore that he’d broken several bones, yet here he was walking around in perfect shape. No wonder Eren acted as if he had a death wish most of the time…

“Captain!”

Hearing a familiar voice, he twisted about and allowed himself a small smile when he spotted Petra striding toward him, appearing in mostly fine form; a few faint red lines peeked out beneath the sleeve of jacket on her right arm and she’d lost a couple of pounds, but she was smiling and dressed in uniform. “That maniac sign you out for patrol?”

Petra giggled for a few seconds and nodded, her hair pinned back from her face. “She told me that she had much more interesting things to focus on right now.” Petra stepped back a little and performed a perfect salute. “Reporting for duty, Sir.”

“That’s one of us, at least.” Other than going out for his feeding the night before, Erwin still had him mostly locked down on base. “I’m sure Mikasa will be pleased to see a familiar face, since she’s been working with Mike.”

Something dark flashed across Petra’s pretty face. “It’ll be my pleasure to resume patrols with her, Sir.”

He had a feeling why that was so, and it didn’t have too much to do with Mikasa’s sparking personality. “We all owe that bitch a debt,” he reminded Petra, his right hand rising to rub at his healed throat. The blonde and that big guy, the one who acted as if Eren was his. When he noticed that the color was draining from the world, he gritted his teeth together and closed his eyes, forcing himself to take deep breaths as he struggled to get his emotions under control. Dammit, this was getting to be a major pain in the ass.

“Uhm, Sir? Is everything all right?”

“Yeah. Just… having a bit of a learning curve, here.” He took a few more breaths and deemed himself calm enough to open his eyes again, and was relieved to see everything back in color again.

“All right.” She appeared a bit concerned just then but forced a smile none-the-less. “If you don’t have anything for me, I’ll go check to see how Mikasa’s doing and arrange a patrol later tonight.”

“That’s fine.” He turned to continue on his way to his quarters and stopped after a step. “Wait a moment, there’s something you can do for me.” As he explained his request, Petra’s smile grew brighter and she stifled a giggle with her right hand.

“Of course, Sir. I’ll have them for you by tomorrow morning.” Giving him another salute by way of waving goodbye, she hurried off to where Mike and his private squad was practicing.

Tugging at his shirt and the imaginary feel of sweat that clung to his skin, Levi resumed walking down the long hallway, well aware of the awed stares and hushed whispers that were directed his way. Thanks to his enhanced hearing he could pick up some of the talk, most of it about him and Eren, and he seriously hoped that there was another topic for these morons to start gossiping about soon. It certainly didn’t help that Eren looked like the perfect example of perv-bait – wouldn’t it be so much *fun* trying to explain that if anyone was being taken advantage of here, it was Levi? That *he* was the much younger of the two, though he liked to think he wasn’t lacking that much experience when it came to-

“Levi, just the person I wanted to see.”

Two more minutes and he’d have been safely behind a locked door, Levi told himself as he gritted his teeth together. Did the overgrown bastard have a tracking device on him or something? Is that how he always managed to catch him at times like these? “What do you want, Smith?”

“Oh, it must be bad if we’re on to last names.” Erwin grinned, looking rather smug with himself, and leaned against the wall – effectively blocking Levi’s access to his quarters. “In a hurry? Meeting with a certain someone?”

“Just an appointment with my shower, some soap and plenty of hot water.” Levi crossed his arms over his chest and glared, not that it had any effect on the smug asshole. “Are we going to talk out here?”

“No, your quarters will be fine.” Erwin swept his massive mitt of right hand out to gesture for Levi to continue on his way.

Presumptive bastard, wasn’t he? Still, that confident attitude had gotten them out of a lot of messes in the past – had also gotten *into* a lot of messes, but who was counting? It wasn’t as if Hange had a spreadsheet somewhere… they opened it up some nights when the vodka was especially strong and they had a few hours to bitch about things….

“Do I want to know what that particular eye-twitch is about?”

“Probably not.” Levi sighed as he pushed open the door to his quarters. “I’m not making any tea for your ass, just so you know.” Keeping him from his shower, what the hell. Probably had some nasty job for him on top of it.

“That’s all right, I hope to not be here too long.” As if to prove his point, Erwin didn’t settle down in one of the chairs, instead he strolled around the room and leaned one of his too-broad shoulders against the edge of a bookshelf. “So, how are… things?” He motioned in Levi’s general direction.

Levi almost sat down behind his desk but decided against it after glancing at the state of his clothes; those shitty bots were getting lazy at cleaning the training room. “Eh, it’s going all right.” He sat on the edge of the desk instead and rested his hands on his thighs. “Could do without the whole ‘vamping out’ thing whenever I get pissed off, but the healing factor and increased strength and speed are really nice.” Well, they were when he remembered about them in time – he was going to need a new teacup. And a new datapad. And a new toothbrush….

“’Pissed off’. Erwin laughed for a few seconds, the sound deep and warm, a sign of true humor for once. “Levi, you’re *always* pissed off.” He shook his head and glanced upward as he grinned. “I’m surprised you look normal at all.”

“Ha ha.” Why did he consider this man a friend? “Maybe it’s because of all the assholes I find myself surrounded by that I’m always in a bad mood.”

“Maybe.” Erwin continued to grin for a few seconds more before his demeanor because serious. “Everything’s going well, really?” His blue eyes were earnest as he looked Levi over.

“… yeah.” Levi rubbed at the back of his neck, his fingers brushing over his undercut. “It’s not something I would have chosen for myself if asked outright a few days ago, but yeah.” He had a stronger will to live than he’d ever suspected.

“Then I’m glad for you.” Erwin bowed his head for a moment, his eyes closed and his lips pressed into a flat line. When he looked up, he seemed to be back to himself. “It wouldn’t be the same without your cheerful self around here.”

Levi scoffed at that and made an obscene gesture at the bastard. “More like you couldn’t find anyone stupid enough to go along with your idiot schemes.”

“There is that, too.” Erwin tugged on the hem of his grey jacket and stared off at the far wall. “Speaking of which – Pixis wants to meet with us tomorrow and I’d like for you to come along.”

Levi couldn’t tell if that was a good or bad sign, considering recent events. “You’re not worried about me going all ‘fangy’ in front of him?” He watched Erwin carefully for his response, his hands clenched tightly around the edges of the desk; Erwin had said he’d do what he could to keep Eren and Mikasa a secret from Pixis – did that extend to Levi?

“I trust you to control yourself.” Erwin stared back at Levi in a level manner, meeting his eyes without any sign of duplicity. “You’re my second in command, it would look off if you’re missing during an important meeting, and I get the impression that he has something very important that he wants to tell us.”

Like that didn’t sound ominous enough, especially when Erwin was doing his deep ‘I am the commander’ voice. “Lovely, as if we’re not in enough shit already.”

Just for a moment, Erwin’s shoulders slumped forward and exhaustion slackened the muscles of his chiseled features. “I know.” Then he shook his head a few times and was back to being the disgusting stellar example of everything good and hardworking and all that other shit Levi refused to buy into. “But that seems to be when we do our best work, no?”

That prompted a snort of amusement out of Levi. “Yeah, you’ve got me there. Anything else, oh noble pain in the ass?”

It was Erwin’s turn to snort as he pushed away from the bookshelf. “One more - please try not to publicly molest Eren for the next day or two.” When the wood began to crack beneath Levi’s hands and the world once more lost color except for a certain meddling bastard, Erwin held up his hands. “I said ‘publicly molest’ – I couldn’t care less what you two do behind closed doors, but you’re attracting unwanted attention with the streaking and late night visits. People are talking about the two of you much too much, and considering what you now are….” He deliberately didn’t say anything else, just stared pointedly into Levi’s eyes.

It took a few deep breaths before Levi had control of himself once more. “This place is nothing but a gossiping-“

“Yes, so that’s why you’ll work out your relationship issues in private, like almost everyone else,” Erwin ordered, his thick brows drawn in a ‘v’ over his blue eyes. Then he chuckled, the sound nervous as if he couldn’t help himself. “Who would have thought that I’d be talking about ‘relationship issues’ with you?”

“Look, if you’re going to insult me, it’ll be in your own shitty office and with a bottle of whisky open,” Levi snapped. “So get the hell out of here.” He’d put off a shower for this shit?

“Yes, yes, just don’t forget about that meeting – we’re to meet at 11:00.” Erwin smiled as he walked out of Levi’s quarters, too amused for Levi’s comfort.

The smug, overbearing- Levi forced his hands away from the cracked wood of his desk and jerked them through his hair, just resisting the urge to yank on the strands. One good thing about him being turned was that he should outlive the bastard, which meant that he could take great joy in pissing on Erwin’s urn when the time came. Oh yes. Oh so great joy.

In the middle of debating if he wanted to have a cup of tea to calm himself down before the shower since he’d already waited this long or not, he was startled by the sound of someone knocking on his door. Swearing that he was going to practice gutting people with his new claws if it turned out to be Hange or Erwin, he stomped over to the door and was surprised to find Eren on the other side.

“Ah, you’re not washed up yet?” Eren blinked twice, his eyes wide and lips tilted downward in a frown. “Something wrong?”

“Yes, this division is being run by a sadist.” Levi snatched at Eren’s shoulder and pulled him inside the room, unable to stop himself from breathing in deep at the scent of clean skin, soap, water and *Eren*. The brat had to be fresh from the shower, his hair barely dried at all and even more tangled than usual. Levi’s fingers itched to comb through it – fuck, they itched to tear off those grey and white clothes so he could find out just how clean that golden skin tasted.

“Okay.” Eren’s frown deepened even as he allowed himself to be drug further inside Levi’s quarters. “I thought maybe you’d want to hang out up on the roof, practice your control a little more or something, but I can come back after your shower.”

“*No*.” Levi turned Eren around and propelled him toward the bathroom. “You’re coming with me.”

“Wait, where?” Eren attempted to dig in his heels, but Levi so had the advantage now. “To the bathroom?”

“Yep, you can wash my back and I’ll wash yours.” It would be a tight fit, but he didn’t care about that right now.

“But I already took a shower!” Eren’s voice squeaked a little as he nearly tripped from being shoved forward.

“Good, then you know the concept.” Levi circumvented the little shit from trying to brace himself against the door by wrapping his arms around him and carrying him the last few steps. “And afterward, you’re going to give me that massage I’m owed.” He certainly needed it after dealing with Erwin.

“Fine.” Eren didn’t sound the least bit gracious just then, coming across as every bit the brat he usually appeared. “But I’m not going to be the one with a temperature panel jabbing into my kidney or tile marks on my face.”

Levi really… no, he didn’t want to know. “Fair enough.”

Eren still appeared rather dubious about the entire situation, but at least he started to take off his shirt. Planning to put a serious dent in Erwin’s precious hot water supply, Levi grinned and started to strip as well.

*******

Ymir’s hand stilled with its stroking along Krista’s forehead when she felt her lover begin to stir awake. She leaned back a little, just enough so she didn’t frighten Krista by being too close but near enough to be within sight. When those blue eyes that she loved so much slowly blinked open, she smiled. “It’s about time, sleepyhead.”

“Mmm, Ymir?” Krista closed her eyes again and lifted her hands to rub at her face. She seemed about to fall back asleep and then suddenly sat up, the thin sheet that Ymir had placed over her pooling into her lap. “It- it worked?” Her voice was a little raspy, but other than that, she sounded fine. Her hands clutched at her throat, over the spots where Ymir and Eren had fed.

“Yeah – yes, it did.” Ymir couldn’t stop grinning, even as she bent forward so she could give her lover a quick kiss. “You’re… well, not quite one of ‘us’ now.” Krista was like Eren, which was even better. Even if those bastards tried to hurt her, if they tried to hunt her down, all she had to do was wait for sunrise and she could run away.

“It worked,” Krista repeated, her tone incredulous and her eyes round. “It actually worked.”

Ymir felt a pang of guilt at that incredibility – had Krista doubted it so much? Why had she agreed to going through with things, then? “Are you… are you all right?” She reached out to take Krista’s slim shoulders between her hands and stared down at her girlfriend.

Krista looked up at her, a tremulous smile on her face. “I’m *wonderful*. I just… I just thought that if there was any chance of it going wrong, on something hurting us, it would happen. How could we continue to be so lucky?”

“Yeah, I know.” Ymir had difficulty swallowing past a throat gone so tight. Fuck, she didn’t deserve someone like Krista, someone who had so much faith in her, and she didn’t have the heart to tell her about the comm in her pouch, about what she most likely had to do when the damn thing next went off. She could only hope that they would continue to be ‘so lucky’ and that she could hand Eren over to those assholes with no one the wiser – especially Krista. “I know.” She closed her eyes and hugged Krista to her as tightly as she could.

“Ymir, is something wrong?” Krista hugged her back, at first with too much strength but she didn’t mind, not when it was Krista’s arms around her. A slight grunt escaped her, causing her lover to murmur an apology and loosen her grip a little.

“No, it’s all right.” Ymir buried her face in Krista’s soft hair and inhaled deeply. “I just thought I’d lost you for a few minutes back there. I don’t ever want to lose you.”

“Silly, how can that happen, especially now? We promised each other.” A gentle kiss was pressed to the side of her neck. “Who can stop us now?”

Who indeed, other than someone sitting inside this smelly lab? Ymir hugged Krista close to her and did her best to not think about Annie and the others, to just focus on the now. “What do you say to us getting out of here, hmm? You could probably use a shower or something.” She’d done her best to wipe away the little bit of blood that had spilled during the feeding, but she’d feel better once all traces of it were gone. Despite all of the centuries when she’d fed from humans, it had felt so… odd, feeding from someone she loved, to feel her heartbeat slowly fade. It had been even worse to step back and allow Eren to step in and finish draining her dry.

She stepped away to allow Krista to swing her feet over the edge of the counter and to stand up. “I feel… I feel really good.” Krista continued to smile and even laughed. “When do we go hunting? I really want to go hunting with you.”

“Later, when it gets dark out.” Ymir spotted a damn electrical node that she’d missed and gently removed it from the back of Krista’s neck. “We’ll probably have that crazy scientist tagging along.”

Krista rocked up on her toes so she could wrap her arms around Ymir’s neck. “I don’t care,” she murmured, her face tilted up toward Ymir’s. “Let her try to keep up with us.”

“And that’s why I love you, darling.” Ymir bridged the space between them so they could kiss, her arms tight around her lover’s waist. Nothing was taking this away from her.

*******

Mikasa waited at the entrance to the upper-scale market where Jean had arranged their date and fidgeted with ends of her scarf; it wasn’t often that she felt nervous or out of place, not after living so long – after a while she’d become inured to the emotions – but right now she felt those emotions keenly while she waited for the young MP. Did she look all right? Was the grey skirt and blue sweater that she’d borrowed from Roswitha and Mina all right? Should she have-

“Mikasa! I’m sorry, I got held up by a call from home.” Jean appeared flushed and a little out of breath as if he’d been running, and he bent over to rest his hands on his knees once he came to a stop in front of her. He seemed to have put some effort into his appearance today, wearing brown slacks, a white button shirt and even a tan vest, his hair neatly combed down and away from his face. She couldn’t help but think about a certain infuriating captain who always looked the same, who never put any effort into pleasing Eren… well, he had stopped with the awful name-calling, at least.

“I really am sorry, it’s just my mom wanted to know what was going on and-“

She realized that she was still frowning and forced herself to smile. “No, it’s all right. Family’s important. I was just thinking of something else.” She reached out to slide her arm through his elbow and nodded in the direction of the market’s entrance. “So we’re going in here, yes?”

“Uh, yeah.” Jean appeared utterly stunned for a moment, and then a rather silly grin spread across his face. “I thought maybe you’d like to walk around for a bit, buy a few things and then we could have something to eat before you report for your shift.” His grin faded a little as his arm pressed hers to his side. “Ah, did you have a bad training session today?”

“I think I can manage something for dinner.” She hadn’t been able to eat anything at breakfast, between everyone talking about Eren and being so upset about Krista’s upcoming transformation. “I’m training with Captain Zacharias right now, since Captain Ackerman is still recovering from his wounds.” It took a lot of effort to say that last part with a straight face.

Jean gave her right hand a gentle pat, as if to offer her some reassurance. “It’s difficult to think of him being wounded, he’s such a great fighter. I’m sure he’ll be back on his feet in no time. Just a little bed rest and he’ll be fine – those nanos are amazing things.”

Oh, the bastard was spending a lot of time in bed, all right. Mikasa took a few deep breaths in order to keep her emotions calm and forced a change in subject. “So, do you come here often?”

Jean laughed a little and rubbed at the back of his head, messing up his carefully combed hair. “Yeah, I guess I do.” He let go of her arm to step aside enough to gesture around them, to the neatly arranged tables filled with mostly expensive goods such as small pieces of artwork, jewelry, finely made clothes and gourmet delicacies. “I’m from a poorer section of the dome, so it’s a thrill to be able to walk around here and buy one or two things, get something nice for my parents and friends.”

She gave him a small smile, amused by his honesty and enthusiasm. “The MP must pay you very well.”

He laughed again, a faint hint of red staining his cheeks. “Yeah, well, that is one of the perks of joining them.” He glanced around and motioned to a booth that was selling colorful scarves. “Do you want me to buy you something? You’re always wearing the same thing, how about something in-“

“*No*.” That came out harsher than she’d intended, she could tell by the way his brown eyes went wide. Her fingers twitched to dig into the scarf, to push it up until her face was hidden by it. “No,” she repeated in a calmer tone. “I… this one is fine. It means a lot to me.”

“Okay.” It was clear that Jean didn’t understand things, but he forced a smile and moved them past the stand covered with colorful scarves. “Something else, maybe? A pair of gloves or maybe a pretty barrette for your hair?”

The gloves would only become shredded when she unsheathed her claws and she’d never cared for anything stuck in her hair, but she smiled and looked around at all of the tables and their bright wares. “There,” she pointed, toward one that had some pretty necklaces on display.

Given a clear goal, Jean’s face became set with determination and he held her hand in his as he made his way over to the table. The necklaces were finely made, thin metal wires set with sparkling beads, and Mikasa enjoyed choosing among the many color combinations. She eventually settled for a string with alternating black and gold beads. “I like this one.”

“Are you sure? I think this one is really nice.” Jean smirked as he held up a string of black and green beads.

She scoffed and batted aside his hand. “I don’t think so.”

“Aw, you’re breaking my heart here.” He pretended to sniff even as he motioned to the woman behind the table to indicate that he’d pay for the necklace. She watched on with some bemusement as he did so – it had been quite some time since anyone other than Eren and Armin had bought anything for her, and that was with credits from their pooled resources. “There, it’s all yours,” he informed her once he was done.

“Thank you.” She paused for a moment when he gestured for her to hand him the necklace, clearly intent on helping her to put it on. ‘You didn’t have to do that, you know.” She could have bought it herself.

Jean seemed to hold his breath when she turned around and brushed her hair aside so he could loop the necklace around her neck. “Ah, yeah, but I wanted to do something nice for you. You seem… you seem like someone who deserves to have nice things done for them.” His hands were warm and trembling against the nape of her neck.

She was still for a few seconds as the necklace settled against her chest, the stones and wire cool at first. Her fingers sought out the tiny crystals, their edges sharp against her skin, and she wondered how long it would be before the thing broke or got left behind, before it became another possession lost against the press of time. Would she keep one of the stones inside the pouch that hung against her sternum to remind her of the sweet young man who’d tried so hard? Or would she do her best to let his memory fade into the sea of all the others, a blur she wouldn’t focus on, details that never quite sharpened to the point of stirring things it would hurt too much to carry forth every day. Moving forward, she would have Eren at her side… and Eren might have his bastard captain.

“Are you okay? If you don’t like it we can find something else.”

Mikasa blinked a few times to find Jean staring down at her with evident concern. “No, it’s lovely.” Her face felt stiff when she tried to smile. “It’s just… it’s been a while since I’ve gotten any jewelry.” At least a century, if you didn’t count the string of clay beads that Armin had made for her over four decades ago.

Jean huffed a little as he motioned for them to move on. “That’s a shame – you deserve better than that.” Him echoing what she told Eren brought out an internal wince. “Those other guys you dated were idiots.”

She shrugged and led him toward a booth that sold what looked to be apple tarts. “It doesn’t matter since they’re not here.”

That brought back the silly grin from before, the one that made her think that she might choose to remember Jean despite the pain involved in such an act. “So you like apples?”

Busy searching through the tarts for the ones that looked the best, she paused and gave the question some thought – gave her *answer* some thought. “My mother and brother used to always bake apple pies when I was young. I remember… I remember them in the kitchen, singing and laughing together as they baked, the way the scent would fill our home.” She stilled as the memories washed through her; it wasn’t as if they didn’t invite her to join in, but to her it was a special moment for the two of them, one that she was happy to allow them to have and to watch from the dining room, to sit and read and wait patiently for the first piece of pie they always carved out for her to taste…. “It’s one of my fondest memories of… of back then.”

Jean fidgeted a little at the admission, his face downcast and his fingers twisted together. “I don’t have any siblings, and my mother and I aren’t that close. That’s… that’s nice, to have something like that.” He gave her a shy smile and pushed a tart around. “So your brother – Eren – knows how to bake?”

“Yes.” She focused her attention on the tarts in front of her, on finding ones that weighed the heaviest.

“Is he… well, is he okay? Last time- well, I hope he’s all right now.”

This was the first time Jean had brought up what had ended their previous date. Taking the time to buy three tarts from the seller – one each for her, Armin and Eren – Mikasa accepted the bag from the elderly man and waited until they were once more walking around the market to answer. “He’s fine now. Something… he’s better now.” He better be all right, in the hands of an idiotic man who didn’t have a clue how to treat someone as precious as Eren. Being one of them now only meant that Mikasa didn’t have to be so careful when she beat some sense into him.

Still, Eren had decided that the short bastard was someone he wanted to be with, for good or ill, and Mikasa needed to look out for herself as well. She managed a slight but true smile as she slid her right arm once more through Jean’s and headed toward a table covered with trinkets that sparkled in the dome’s artificial light. “He’s fine. But right now, I’m here with you, so let’s not talk about him, okay? It’s our time.”

Jean blinked hard for a moment, probably expecting to be chided for bringing up Eren, until the rest of her words sunk in. A huge grin broke out over his face and he rushed forward with her arm hugged tight to his side. “That’s a great idea.”

*******

Levi closed the door behind him and groaned. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so thankful for not having much of an appetite as I’ve been tonight – Erwin needs to hire some new cooks. That shit was appalling.” The last thing he'd needed after such an... active day was food that looked and tasted like a brick. They should have ignored Hange's plea to join her and Petra for dinner.

Eren made what sounded to be an agreeing noise as he rubbed at his face, his eyes closed when his hand fell back to his side. “I’ve had some rather disagreeable stuff over the years, but there’s no way I’ll call that… that *thing* meatloaf. If Sasha was here tonight, I doubt she could have eaten it.”

“Something’s going on in the agriculture domes.” Levi shrugged off his jacket and gave Eren a pointed look when he finally opened his eyes. “You going to tell me that your ‘buddies’ are messing around there, too?”

Eren frowned for a moment as if considering the question and then shook his head. “Honestly? No fucking clue. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were, but we – Mikasa and me – stay away from them so we don’t really know for certain. Agro domes tend to be too small of communities for us to blend in well and aren’t the best hunting grounds.”

Wasn’t it nice to find out there was something that the little shit didn’t know? “Guess I’ll have to ask Ymir, then.” Wouldn’t that be fun.

“Good luck with that – if she does know the truth, she won’t be telling you it without getting something in return first.” Eren grimaced as he talked, making Levi think that he was still bitter about having turned Krista earlier. Something seemed to be bothering him, since he didn’t stay still upon entering Levi’s quarters but kept pacing about.

About to remove his gauntlet and blades along with his jacket, it occurred to Levi that he wasn’t wearing them – dammit, being off of patrol was messing with him even more than the recent ‘change’. “You want some tea?” Maybe that would help settle them both.

“No.” Eren put those long legs of his to good use and bridged the space between them in just a couple of steps. “I’m tired of sitting around and doing nothing – if you and Commander Smith refuse to allow me to go out and hunt down the trio, then I might as well do something fun.” He reached out to grab onto the front of Levi’s white shirt and pulled him in to a kiss that reeked of desperation and frustration, but damn if it didn’t stir Levi’s cock and leave him wanting more; Eren pressed and rubbed against all the right places, nipped with just the right amount of force at his bottom lip and moaned in such a breathless manner as the kiss broke off.

“Someone’s being a demanding little shit,” Levi chided as he felt himself be pushed toward the direction of the bedroom. So someone was still feeling frisky despite their time in the shower earlier.

Eren’s grin just then was too salacious for his youthful appearance. “I don’t hear you complaining.” When Levi merely grunted in response and began tugging at the hem of Eren’s jersey, his expression grew more thoughtful. “You haven’t called me ‘Twink’ or ‘Twinkie’ lately.” He might seem confused, but it didn’t stop him from undoing the buttons of Levi’s shirt.

“Eh, I got bored calling you a name used by someone else.” Levi shrugged off the explanation, hoping that Eren dropped the matter – he didn’t want to say that Mikasa had guilted him into it. Then something occurred to him. “You’re not calling me ‘Captain Napoleon, either.”

There was a much too innocent smile as Eren pushed Levi’s white shirt off of his shoulders. “It’s no fun, now that you know what it means. I’ll wait a while and come up with something even more obscure.”

“Brat, and here I was thinking of something almost nice for you.” Levi shoved Eren onto the bed and watched as he wriggled out of his pants, leaving his lithe body entirely naked, then planted his right foot next to Levi’s knee so he could help him remove his boot.

Eren ran teasing hands up Levi’s thigh, almost all the way to his crotch, before retreating back down to the boot; his grin stated that he’d caught Levi’s hitched breath over the skittering touch. “And what is that,” he asked as he made quick work of the boot and then motioned for the other leg.

Levi waited until both boots were gone before he answered, his hands busy undoing his pants. “Something to do with ‘honey’ – it reminds me of your eyes.”

Eren sat on the edge of the bed, those eyes of his open wide and glowing in the room’s dim light, his right hand stroking slowly along the length of his erection. “Let’s see, there’s honig, miel and miód, among others, if you don’t want to go with the obvious.”

“Maybe.” Levi leaned forward to give the brat a kiss, and found himself pulled down on the bed, with Eren quick to straddle his lap. “Hey-“

“No. Now is my turn.” Eren stretched out over him, his hands pinning Levi’s arms to the bed. “You can do what you want when I’m done, but for now, it’s my turn. You had yours earlier in the shower.”

“Oh really.” Levi looked at the brat through narrowed eyes. “You think you can make it worth my while?”

Eren arched an eyebrow at that statement as his hips slowly ground into Levi’s. “Let’s see, who was it who dragged me back here last night, and into what was the third longest shower of my life-“

“Wait, that wasn’t the longest?” Levi found himself rather disappointed over the fact. “I’m slipping- we’ll have to work on that next time.”

“Great, I foresee a bout of claustrophobia in my near future.” Eren grimaced yet kept rocking his hips, the pace slow and hard. “Oh, and who could forget the lovely cleaning closet?” He shifted up just enough so his lips hovered over Levi’s, his right thigh pressed against Levi’s hard cock. “I’m thinking you find me worth the time.”

Dammit, what *was it* about those eyes, so big and radiant, the golden hue all the startling when offset by pupils blown with desire. Levi had to force himself to look away from them, only to be drawn by a flash of pink as Eren wet his lips, a hint of white as sharp teeth sunk into the edge of a bottom lip. “Enough talking,” he chided, his voice hoarse with desire. “Show me what you’ve got.” He’d let the little shit take charge – for now.

Those lips curved in a knowing smirk and then Eren was shifting back, hands giving Levi’s wrists one final squeeze as if to say ‘stay here’. Clever fingers with just the hint of claws made their way along his arms and shoulders, his chest as Eren fucking *slithered* downward, hot kisses and licks abandoned in a trail that had Levi cursing and twitching until that dark, tousled head hovered around his crotch.

His breath hitched in anticipation when he felt hot, moist air fan out over his cock, his hands scrambling to latch onto the metal bars of his headboard as his claws came out in force, and the soft ‘click’ of plastic made his body jerk in surprise. Before he could figure out the source of the noise, Eren leaned down and licked the entire length of his cock.

“Fuckin’… tease,” Levi ground out, desperate to have that hot mouth wrapped around his cock, to swallow him down. Golden eyes peeked up at him through tousled strands, amusement plain in their brightness, as Eren licked once, twice more before his lips parted wide and he granted Levi’s wish.

“Oh… *fuck*.” Levi’s head tilted back on the bed at the wondrous sensation, so moist and hot, of the wonderful friction of Eren’s tongue sliding along his cock…. His hips jerked up a little, on pure impulse, and Eren’s hand tightened around the base of his cock yet he kept sucking, remained hunched over with his mouth and tongue constantly moving, pulling away occasionally to lick along its length then returning to engulf it again.

Small, muffled moans would escape Eren while he continued to suck off Levi, the vibrations another bit of heaven, and when Levi managed to lift his head to look down at was going on, he found Eren busy sucking on his dick as if it was a delicious treat while his right hand twisted behind him and moved about. The thought of the brat preparing himself while- Levi groaned at the jolt of pleasure that shot through his body and coiled in his groin.

“Ah- ah, not yet.”

“Shit!” His eyes flew open as pressure tightened around the base of his cock, all that wonderful heat and friction suddenly gone. “You little-“

“This is going to be fun for *both* of us,” Eren chided him as he sat up on the top of Levi’s thighs, the bottle of lube held in his right hand. He frowned down at Levi for a moment as if considering something and then let go of Levi’s cock so he could pour out some of the slick liquid. “If you come too soon, *old man*, that’s it for the night.”

“Who… has the body of teenager, huh?” Levi hissed when Eren slicked up his cock and grit his teeth together despite his complaint, hard-pressed not to prove the brat right. The blowjob had left him so close to the edge, but the thought of losing to Eren helped him to claw back some necessary control.

That incongruous smirk, the too-debauched for his apparent years smirk, was back on Eren’s face as he shifted into position, his thighs tight against Levi’s hips and his ass brushing against the tip of Levi’s cock. “And who’s fucking said teenaged body, eh?” He didn’t give Levi a chance to respond before he sunk downward, slowly but steadily taking Levi inside.

Fuck, why was it that each time they did this that it was such a shock? That Levi felt the breath rush out of him at such heat, such tightness? He wanted to grab hold of Eren’s hips and thrust up, *hard*, but remembered Eren’s ‘I’m in charge’ just in time, as well as the fact that his claws were fully extended.

Eren’s ass finally pressed against his thighs, prompting a groan from them both. “Good boy,” the brat had the audacity to say as he rocked forward, his hands stroking along Levi’s sweaty chest.

“Fuck you.”

Laughter rang out as Eren lifted himself up. “That’s the point.” He moved slowly enough to drive Levi insane, to make him ready to take his hands off of the headboard, but right before he could, the damn brat suddenly shoved his hips downward.

Oh fuck, did that feel good. Levi rocked his hips upward to meet that sweet ass, glaring all the while at the smirking brat straddling him, and felt as if something in his chest stuttered when Eren’s body tightened even *more* around him.

“Am I worth the effort yet,” Eren asked as he leaned forward, teeth nipping at Levi’s chin. The tips of claws circled around Levi’s chest, just the slightest hint of pain amongst trails of pleasure, and all the while the damn brat kept moving his hips, kept alternating his pace in a maddening fashion until Levi finally gave in to the urge and latched onto those bony hips.

“Driving me crazy,” he hissed as he jerked Eren downward, *hard*, just as he thrust his hips upward.

“Good.” There was something almost feral to Eren’s expression, his words just then, his nails raking down Levi’s chest to leave a trail of blood. Steam rose from their bodies, the wounds healing almost instantly, and Levi didn’t care because the pleasure only spiked all the higher for that bit of pain, pleasure that was already an insane buzz in his veins, his head.

Eren’s claws twitched against Levi’s stomach, his right hand wrapped around his own erection, and he cried out when Levi pulled down hard on his hips for another brutal thrust. Levi stared on as Eren’s neck arched back, his eyes wide and mouth open as he cried out Levi’s name, and then Levi was cursing as Eren tightened even *more* around him as the brat came. Warmth splattered on his stomach, his chest, one of the last things he felt before the pleasure crashed through him, rendering him insensible to anything else until it ran its course.

Shivering through its aftershocks, he buried his face in Eren’s damp, messy hair, the brat’s face now tucked into the crook of his neck. “You… gonna be there… all night?”

“… maybe.” Eren sounded as drained as he felt.

“Hell no. Shower, now.” Levi backed up the command with a swat to the little shit’s ass, even if it took most of his strength.

There was an awful lot of grumbling and a couple of failed attempts, but Eren eventually managed to sit upright. He looked done in for the night, sweaty and covered in his own spunk, of which he took an absentminded swipe from Levi’s stomach and licked from his finger. Levi felt a stirring of desire at the sight… and not much energy to do anything about it. Huh. Looked as if he’d have to wait for ‘his’ turn after they got some sleep.

“You’re not going to try to raise your ranking now, right? Because I think I can maybe remain standing long enough to rinse off and that’s it,” Eren said, echoing Levi’s thoughts.

“Then get moving, because you still have to help change the bed.” Levi shoved at the brat with his foot to emphasis his words.

Eren grumbled some more but started moving. “Couldn’t pick a fucking minister or chairman, could I? Servants galore, those guys. No, I get stuck with a shitty, clean-freak of a captain.” For all of his complaining, he appeared more tired than upset.

“Shut it, you never had it so good.” Levi got out of bed just so he could annoy the little shit and gave him a shove toward the shower.

“We clearly have different definitions of ‘good’.”

“Says the man screaming out my name five minutes ago.” Levi leered while Eren frowned over that fact. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“Oh shut up.” Rubbing at his face in a clear sign of exhaustion, Eren began to run the water. “You’re showing your age now – or should I say the lack of it?”

“Ha ha.” Crowding Eren into the small shower, Levi thought to himself that it was funny how he was getting used to this – having someone around so much, trading barbs back and forth, being himself… he shuddered a little as he shifted about so he was standing beneath the hot water with Eren and did his best to not think about such stupid things. The sex was good – was more than good – and yeah, it was nice to not be all alone for once. When he wasn’t being such a little shit, Eren was pretty decent company. That’s all this was. “Hurry up, that bed isn’t making itself.”

“A damn chairman,” Eren muttered as he rubbed the soap over his chest. “Next time, I’m going after a damn chairman.

Levi splashed water in the insolent brat’s face. “Like he’d put up with your whiny ass.”

“I don’t know, I put up with your sadistic one.” Eren splashed water back at him, and then before Levi gave it any thought, he was having a fucking water battle in his own shower. A fucking. Water. Battle. What was he, five years old? He managed to get Eren’s head under the main water nozzle but the little shit swiped his feet out from beneath him and then they both went down, and someone started laughing and the next thing he knew… the next thing he knew he was on the floor of his shower, limbs all tangled together and laughing his fool head off. Of all the dumb luck, he even ended up on the bottom, but Eren was nice and warm on top of him at least. It was easy to reach up to pull the bastard’s head down for a kiss, one lazy and warm and it was all the damn steam in the room that was making it difficult to breathe, he told himself.

“You’re cleaning up this mess,” he told the brat when they broke apart.

“Yeah, yeah, it can wait until morning.” Eren closed his eyes and leaned in for another kiss.

Erwin was going to be *so pissed* about the water bill, Levi thought rather happily to himself.

*******

Ymir grinned at Krista, who just barely managed to swallow a whine as she backed away from the wall of hot air ‘dryers’ that assisted with drying peoples skin and hair. “You’re going to have to get used to doing it the old fashion way, ‘princess’,” she teased, amused by the mental image of her lover walking around with hair as ratty and tangled as Eren’s. Yeah, that boy definitely didn’t like the high-pitched sound of the mechanical blowers, not that she blamed him, but he barely wasted the effort of running a towel over his head a few times and that was it.

Krista pouted for a moment and glared at the wall before her from a safe distance. “I’ll figure something out – meet you outside in a few minutes.”

“All right.” Ymir blew her a kiss and picked up her belongings, finished with showering and getting ready for the day; her hair was still damp but the nice thing about ponytails was that all she had to do was get most of the water out, comb it and then pull it back and she was done for the day. Krista probably needed to talk to Mikasa to figure out how ‘Miss Perfect’ got her hair all nice and straight and neat without too much effort.

She had just stepped outside when there was a muffled beeping sound coming from one of her pouches – the noise startled her enough that she nearly dropped the bottle of soap that she was carrying, making her curse as she scrambled to retrieve the damn comm. Doing her best to appear nonchalant about the whole thing, she slunk over to the other side of the hallway so she could watch the door for Krista and answered the phone, slipping into the oldest dialect of English that she knew. “What do you want?”

This time it was Annie on the other end. “Have a fun time last night?”

A feeling of dread began to build in Ymir’s stomach and spread out through her body, making her fingers and toes tingle with numbness. Despite the awful sensation, she forced a cocky smile on her face and a confidence that she didn’t feel into her voice. “Last night? Yeah, the girlfriend and I had a great time in a private room we found. We-“

“That’s not what I mean.” Annie’s voice was one of pure ice, spurring on the numbness that crept through Ymir’s body. “You took her hunting. She did rather well for a neophyte.”

Shit, they knew about it already. How did they know? Ymir hadn’t smelled a vampire at all last night – but then again, she’d been so focused on Krista, on finding a Malform for her lover and shepherding her through the first feeding. “How did you-?”

“Don’t treat us like idiots.” Anger started to shatter Annie’s iciness. “There’s too much at stake, and now you have what you want. That means it’s *our* turn.”

Despite the fact that Krista could walk out of the showers at any moment, that Mikasa or Eren - *Eren* - could come strolling down the hall at any second, Ymir closed her eyes and hoped that she could shut out the world. Yet she knew better, knew that there wouldn’t be any miracles for her – she’d already used up all of her luck, if you could call it that, back on that awful day so long ago and then that night recently when she’d stumbled across a true angel. “And that means…?”

“That means that at 11:00 today, you will assist two gentlemen who will be entering the base to install a new cooling device. Meet them on the first floor by the main electrical generator, understood?”

“Yes.” Like she had any choice in this. “You think two men will be enough?”

“They will have to be – they have their orders, just as you do, and if they fail to bring out Eren… let’s just say that the Freedom Corps will pay the price, along with the Maria dome. You don’t want that, do you?”

For a moment Ymir fantasized about tracking down Eren, about twisting off his head and ending this now, before it got any bloodier, before she hurt Krista. But she knew that it wouldn’t end there, that she’d just have Mikasa and Annie and probably that asshole captain after her, too, and lots of people would still die. “No, I don’t.” So she’d do what she’d have to, would hand over Eren and hope that somehow, things would still turn out all right. The cold-hearted bitch had been planning out this shit for too damn long for her to try to derail it this late in the game.

“Good. Do your job and people won’t have to die.”

“For now,” Ymir added, the bitterness she felt inside slipping free.

There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. “Isn’t that always how it is with us?” Annie sounded tired and as bitter as Ymir felt. The line went dead, and Ymir shoved it back into its pouch without looking at it, disgusted by the entire affair. Just a few more hours, and she’d have to allow death into the place that she’d sought out for refuge, that had taken her in. Suddenly she felt the urge for another shower, but knew she’d never be able to wash the filth off of herself.

*******

Marlo did his best to remain standing at attention in Commander Dok’s office, his back straight and shoulders squared, his face a mask of bland respect as he stared straight ahead. He hated being on ‘wait and fetch’ duty, a mostly useless waste of time where you stood around doing nothing unless it was to run silly errands for the Commander. Yet he’d landed himself and Boris in this mess because of his pushing, his demand for truth and… and he itched to be out of the commander’s office, digging around for Beatrice’s sake. For the sake of the other family’s like her. Had she gone to Commander Pixis and the Engineers? He hadn’t seen her or any other families seeking their lost loved ones since that day.

Commander Dok appeared busy working on several documents, his fingers flying over the screen of a datapad as he flicked them this way and that. He would scowl and shake his head now and then, his brow furrowed as if bothered by what he was reading, and he would pause after a while to let his gaze flicker to the holo photo of the lovely woman at the corner of his desk. He set the datapad down for a minute and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, his eyes closed, as if lost in thoughts, but picked it back up again. All the while, Marlo and Boris stood there and waited for an order, for *something* to do. This was the worst part of this shift, standing here and having nothing to do. How much longer were they going to be punished? Marlo felt guilty for dragging poor Boris along into this.

Commander Dok had resumed his reading for a few minutes when the comm went off, causing all of them to be startled by the shrill sound. Mumbling something under his breath, the commander set the datapad aside with a bit more force than necessary and ran a hand over his goatee as if to make sure he appeared presentable before answering it, a strained smile on his narrow face. “Hello?” His appearance became even more strained once he saw who was on the other end.

“Good morning, Commander.” The deep voice of Minister Zackly filled the MP commander’s office, echoing off of the wood-paneled walls and plastered ceiling. “I trust you have a few minutes to discuss business?”

“Ah, y-yes, I-“

“Good.” The minister sounded bored, as if the commander’s answers didn’t matter to him. “I’ve a task for your division to handle for me today. It’s come to my attention that we’ve a safety issue here in the dome – that people are plotting a possible insurgence and spreading malignant rumors. I need you to send some of your people to apprehend the main instigators.”

“Main instigators?” A look similar to pain tightened Commander Dok’s face for a moment, before he forced it to smooth out. “And who would they be?”

“Commander Smith and Captain Ackerman of the Freedom Corps. Commander Pixis of the Engineers should also be detained… to be administered a warning. We feel the man isn’t too far gone and is valuable to the continuation of the dome, but he is treading in dangerous waters.”

“I… understand, Sir.” Commander Dok swiped his right hand over his forehead, which had beaded with sweat. “I’ll send out my people to bring them in.”

“They’ll be gathered together at Commander Pixis’ office in twenty minutes. It’s advisable to take them together and away from the Freedom Corps headquarters.” There was a pause on the other end of the comm, during which Marlo did his best to remain quiet, to not draw any attention to himself from either of the older men; beside him Boris stood just as quiet and just as tense, well aware of the importance of what was going on a few feet away. “I’m counting on you to get this done, Dok.”

“Yes, Sir. I’ll send out my best team.” It appeared as if Commander Dok was going to add something else, but there was the muted ‘blip’ of the com going silent. The commander stared at the screen for several seconds afterwards and then hung his head low, his fingers laced above his head. He seemed to take several deep breaths before he sat up straight in his chair, his hands clasped in front of him.

“Feulner.”

“Yes, Sir!” Boris was startled to attention, and Marlo along with him.

“I need you to go fetch me Becker and Camilo, along with the rest of their team.”

Boris stared at the commander for a few seconds before snapping back to himself. “Ah, Sir, it’ll take me at least-“

“Get them *now*,” Commander Dok ordered, his voice low and containing a hint of menace.

“Yes, Sir!” Boris thumped his right fist into his chest with enough force that it had to have hurt and then spun on his heel and scurried from the office. Marlo forced a swallow past a tight throat as he watched his partner flee and wondered why he hadn’t been ordered to go as well.

“Sand.” Hearing his name be barked out in such an annoyed manner prompted an undignified squeak from him as he faced his surly commander, to find the man scowling at him. “Don’t you have something more important to do?”

“Uhm, Sir?”

“Get out of my sight,” the man ordered him, waving him away as if he was nothing. Marlo stared at him in shock for a few precious seconds before the words sunk in, and then he hurried to give the commander a salute before leaving as well.

Once outside of the office, he paused for a moment trying to decide on which way to go. Had the commander truly relieved him of duty like that? Should he really take a risk with his career – possibly his life? Was it a risk? Commander Dok knew that he was ‘stirring up trouble’ by pushing for the MP to honor its commitments to the dome’s citizens… the same commander who had just accepted an order from a minister to arrest three people with no proper charges other than some very loosely-based accusations. The same commander who had promised to send his best team after them… a team that was currently on patrol at opposite ends of the dome. Boris would waste at least half an hour rounding them up, and then another twenty or so minutes before they could reach the Engineers’ base.

Marlo decided that he couldn’t stand around and just watch anymore, that he’d finally *do* something more than just accuse his fellow MPs of slacking in their duty or send bereft family members to other people to find answers. Maybe he’d get kicked out of the MPs for this, but it was becoming clear to him that the MPs wasn’t an organization he wanted to be a part of, not the way it currently stood. Commander Dok was giving the Engineers and the Freedom Corps a chance- but it was a tiny one, and he was still following through with Minister Zackly’s orders.

His mind made up, Marlo headed in the direction where he knew Connie and Jean to currently be on patrol; they were his best bet to get in contact with the Freedom Corps, to have someone in that organization believe him when he said there was a threat to their top ranking members.

He just hoped that Connie and Jean believed him, and that they were able to do something – what had Commander Smith and Captain Ackerman done to bring down the wrath of a top-ranking minister upon them?

*******


	22. Divide, part one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, here's where things start to get dark. Fair warning. Finally beginning to tie things together and it's not going well for certain characters....
> 
> As always, the kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!
> 
> *******

*******

Levi surveyed his bathroom with a critical eye and finally gave a nod of approval. “Nice to see you didn’t half-ass it, or else you’d be cleaning your own blood up off the floor as well.”

Eren rolled his eyes while he leaned against the doorway leading to the bedroom and seemed unfazed by the threat. “Yeah, yeah, I’d hope after a millennium or so of looking after myself that I’d have learned to clean by now. I can even cook, too.”

“Wow, you’ll make someone an excellent housewife,” Levi sneered as he straightened some soap dispensers that had gotten knocked around during their little ‘battle’ last night.

“That chairman is going to be one hell of a lucky fellow.” Eren pulled that ‘too innocent to be believed’ expression on his face and batted his ridiculous eyes. “He’ll be so happy to spoil me and Mikasa rotten.”

All right, the joke was beginning to really grate on Levi’s nerves right about now, hearing Eren talk about suckering some rich guy into putting up with his crazy shit – and his psycho sister as well. “Don’t you have something you need to do,” he asked once he finished restoring his bathroom to its normally careful order.

Eren made a rude noise and shook his head. “Like what? Lie on top of the roof and see if I can spot any malfunctioning panels? Crawl all over the ceiling until I’m dizzy? Oh wait, maybe I’ll go out somewhere… but I *can’t*,” he said with obvious bitterness. “So much for me doing any fighting!” His eyes were glowing and his sharp teeth flashed every time he spoke, his face flushed with the impassioned emotions that lent a crispness to his furious speech.

The brat wanted to fight? That was fine with Levi just then. He strode forward and poked Eren in the chest to get him to move out of the doorway, more than content to put some of his newly enhanced strength behind the motion. “You think that you’ll actually be fighting? All it would be is you handing yourself over to those three on a silver platter, and causing more good people to die in the process!” He didn’t stop even when Eren flinched. “You came to *us*, so you’ll do what the *fuck* we tell you to do, and that’s to keep your fucking ass *here*!”

“I seem to remember you dragging my ass here,” Eren shouted back at him. “It was my decision to stay anyway and to trust you despite all of your bullshit, and maybe that was a huge mistake!” He jerked his hands through his hair so fast that some of it had to be pulled out, but his expression was too furious to reveal any pain.

Why couldn’t the little shit see that Levi and Erwin were doing their best to keep him safe? Some of the Corps best had already died against those fucking vamps, and Eren wanted to throw away that sacrifice by parading his ass out on the damn street? “The huge mistake would be to trust the shit that’s between your ears! Now sit your damn ass down and stop bitching before I kick some sense into you!”

Eren went perfectly still for several seconds, his eyes fixed on Levi in a manner that reminded Levi of a cat that had locked onto its prey. He honestly didn’t know what the hell Eren was going to do next – attack, run, *something* - but his body began to tense up while ‘oh shit’ flashed through his brain. It wasn’t often that he was so clearly reminded of what Eren truly was, but this, *this* was one of those times.

Something flashed in front of his face too fast to track and then Eren was hissing, actually *hissing*, this awful, spitting sound as he whirled around, his dark hair fanning out around his head from how quickly he moved and his bare feet slapping against the tiled floor; he wasn’t naked this time, but he didn’t bother to grab his slippers or finish lacing up his jerkin. “Fuck you! I’ve lived a hell of a long time without you or Smith babysitting me, so fuck you both!” The door to Levi’s quarters slammed so hard behind the brat that Levi swore he heard a cracking sound.

Levi stood in his bedroom where he could inhale the scent of sex from the bed and the more elusive one of Eren from all over his quarters, and nearly went cross-eyed as he stared at the short strands of black hair that had fallen onto the bridge of his nose. The strands that Eren must had severed when he’d swiped at Levi’s face moments ago, claws flashing close enough to cut them but not Levi’s face, Levi’s *eyes*. Damn, but someone was *pissed off*.

It had all started out as such a nice morning, too. He rubbed at his face to brush off the shorn hair, and thought about waking up a few hours ago, getting his ‘owed’ turn, then wasting a bit more of Erwin’s hot water. They’d enjoyed some tea together before Eren had worked on cleaning the bathroom and Levi had dealt with some paperwork, and then… yeah. Typical Ackerman relationship right there. The worst part of it was that he wasn’t even sure what the hell he’d done to set off Eren like that. The brat knew he couldn’t go out, so why all the fucking drama now?

Going over to his desk to pick up his blades and gauntlet, Levi figured he’d give Eren some time to cool off, maybe go talk to Hange later and see if she had any particular insight into this whole mess. Maybe Eren was just getting a little squirrely from being cooped up on base for so long. Turning two people in a short amount of time probably hadn’t helped, either. So yeah, give the brat a little space and then hope he was in a better mood later tonight. Perhaps Levi would have some good news to tell him after the meeting with Pixis.

And if a certain shovel-wielding sister knew what was good for her, she’d keep her over-protective nose *out* of this… whatever this was. Fight? Snit? Disagreement? Levi fingered his bangs and supposed he should be thankful that at least he wouldn’t have to go to Erwin about any more furniture replacement requests….

When he stepped out into the hallway and noticed all of the sidelong looks cast his way, he sighed and mentally prepared himself for another day of gossip and an ‘I’m so disappointed in you’ talk from Erwin later on. Dammit, just what had the brat done now?

*******

“Did you hear about this morning? Supposedly Captain Ackerman must have done something so perverted that it drove the poor kid half mad! He was wandering the halls without any shoes on and talking out loud to himself in gibberish!”

“I heard he *growled* at Daniels when the guy asked if he was all right!”

“What do you think the captain is doing to him? I mean, just how… you, know… kinky can he be?”

“This *is* Ackerman we’re talking about! It probably involves cleaning bots or something.“

“That poor kid…”

Ymir forced herself to remain calm while she sipped the piss-water they passed off as coffee, while beside her she could tell that Krista was seething over the insults to their friends – well, to Eren and that short asshole; Krista was nice enough to consider the captain a friend when he was really a barely tolerated acquaintance. Who would guess that when Eren finally decided to get semi-serious about a guy, that he would have such lousy taste… okay, yeah, she had seen that coming from miles away. No big surprise there. Nice package and all, but sheesh, had Mikasa warped that kid or what with her clinginess? Not that Rebel really was all sweet and innocent and warped-free in the first place, from what Ymir could tell.

*Focus*.

She hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, even the scant hours that was normal for her kind, between fretting over today, doing her best to think up a plan and worrying about Krista. And now… now it was almost enough to make her believe in some sort of gods with this little gift being dropped in her lap. That or devils, because if this was Fate or something fucking with her, she was going to go on a rampage that would be remembered for *centuries* to come.

Again, *focus*. Remember what was important, which – or who – was sitting right next to her, busy glowering at the gossipy twits a couple of seats down the table.

“You know, I was always told as a kid that if I kept scowling like that, my face would stick to it,” she told Krista while she pulled on an exaggerated frown. “Explains my beautiful looks, no?”

Krista finally paid some attention to her. She at first glanced Ymir’s way and then took a second look to really notice her, her scowl giving way to laughter. “Oh, all right, I get it, stop trying to scare everyone before breakfast.” She rose up a little to give Ymir a quick kiss. “Even if I do think you look cute like that.”

“That’s because you think I’m perfect the way I am,” Ymir purred. She almost allowed herself to be sidetracked again, her damn nerves seeking any possible distraction, before she focused on the plan that she’d come up with during the night. “So, I’m going to skip practice today.”

Krista’s happy expression morphed into a more crestfallen one at the news and she pulled back a little. “But why? Don’t tell me that you think Captain Hange and her squad aren’t worth the effort-“

“No, that’s not it.” Ymir pressed the fingers of her right hand against her lover’s lips to stifle any more protests. “I think it’ll do you some good to practice with them by yourself, to help develop your own skills a little faster. And… well, I owe Rebel for what he did the other day.” She set the coffee aside and hung her head as if a bit embarrassed about the admission when she was really doing her best to hide her real emotions. “Despite what he said, he didn’t have to do it, and it sounds like he could really use a distraction right about now. So I’m going to track him down after breakfast and talk to him about this idea I have about where some of… well, where some of *them* might be hiding and see if we can’t come up with a plan that might help the Corps out and speed things up a little – help him get out of here a bit faster.”

Krista was quiet for a few seconds before she tugged at Ymir’s hand so she could speak again. “You’re not going to do anything foolish, right?” She eyed her with some suspicion while Ymir gave her a weak smile. “Oh… just don’t get caught, all right?” She knew just as well as Ymir did that Eren was going crazy with being trapped inside – most likely it had something to do with this morning lovers’ spat.

Ymir was completely honest when she answered back. “I promise you, I will do everything I can to not get into trouble.” She was serious about that – she would meet up with whomever it was that Annie was sending, hand over Eren and then be done with… with the whole damn mess. “What do you say we go out today when you’re done training, eh? I think it’ll be a good time to test your new alcohol tolerance.” She’d need to get well and truly drunk tonight… and be as far away as possible when Mikasa realized that Eren was missing.

Mindful of the other people around them, Krista shook her head and rocked up for one more kiss. “Silly, you know I’m a sure thing, but that sounds fun.”

“Eh, I keep waiting for you to come to your senses one of these days,” Ymir admitted before she pushed away from the table to stand up.

“Please, that hasn’t happened yet.” Krista started to hum as she picked up her tray of mostly uneaten food and rose to join her.

Yeah, but that was before Ymir betrayed one of the only friends she had in the world.

*******

Still so furious over… over that *asshole*, Eren didn’t stop to judge his strength well enough and ended up ripping his jersey nearly in half as he jerked it over his head when he went to change his clothes; he’d showered at Levi’s this morning, but needed to change into clean clothes, into something that didn’t *reek* of that condescending, annoying, pompous *ass*. How could he believe even for a moment that maybe, just maybe, here was someone he might-

“Eren? What’s wrong?”

The blatant concern in his sister’s voice had Eren scrambling to yank the clean jersey over his head so he could look at her, and the tears shimmering in her dark eyes made him reach out to her and pull her close into a tight hug. “It’s all right,” he assured her, his face buried against her soft hair. “Don’t worry.” Funny, how she was the one so upset just then.

“Did – it’s *him*, isn’t it? I heard… well, are you sure you’re okay?”

So much for hoping that Mikasa had been off to breakfast with Armin or something and that he’d be able to sneak off somewhere to fully calm down before facing her. “Yes.” When he received a vicious pinch to his left ribs in return to his flippant answer, he yelped and pulled away to look up at her disapproving expression. “Okay, no, I’m ticked off and wishing I’d gouged out his eyes before I left, all right?” He huffed at the hair falling into *his* eyes and couldn’t help but laugh at the slight smile on his sister’s face. “What, talk about me almost maiming someone makes you happy?”

“It lets me know that you’re… well, you.” She urged him to sit down on Armin’s neatly made bed, his left hand held between her own. “What happened,” she asked, slipping into softly spoken German.

He let out a grown and rubbed at the back of his neck, his fingers catching on the thin cord of the leather pouch for a moment. “I… I guess it started when I complained about being bored and wanting to go outside. Nothing new there.” He grimaced to show how tired he was of being cooped up on base, of how useless and frustrated he felt at being denied the ability to fight. “Then he snapped back about how I’d just get caught if I went out, how *I’d* get people killed.” Eren had to close his eyes to hide them glowing just then, the anger from before washing through him so potent that he wanted to tear something apart. Was he used to people dying because of him? It sure has hell had happened enough over the years that he could deal with it in one form or another. Was he happy about it? Fuck no. Did he like having it thrown in his face like a way to discipline a… a bad puppy or something? Rub his nose in the fact to make him tuck his tail between his legs and sit whimpering instead of running around? No fucking way. And *this* by a guy whom he thought he trusted, he thought he cared enough to… to…. “*Fuck*!”

Mikasa’s hands clenched tightly around his until it started to hurt, but it wasn’t anything to what he felt inside his chest just then. Her own eyes were golden and bright, causing her to duck her head and her shiny black hair to fall forward to cover her face. “*I’m* going to be the one gouging out body parts on the bastard.”

Despite the intense anger that Eren felt toward Levi just then, this wasn’t what he wanted. “Wait – no.” He tugged on her hands until she looked at him. “Don’t – he’s not worth it.” Not for her to go after him like that.

“But Eren-“

“*No*.” He shook his head and forced an uneven smile. “Am I furious with him? Yeah, enough to show him his own spleen and another few choice organs. But… he’s not worth it, not really.”

Mikasa’s eyes went wide, shocked enough to darken back to their almost black shade. “But you – you like him enough to….”

“Yeah, I know.” Wasn’t that the most bitter part of this all? He chuckled a little while he reached out to tuck back the hair that clung to his sister’s pale cheek. “Like that matters. He’s still an asshole. Maybe we’re not meant to be together. It happens. Least I got some great sex out of it while it lasted.”

Mikasa shook her head. “No – I’ll be careful and just go beat some sense into him. There has to be a reason why you turned him, as much as I hate his guts.”

“Look – not everyone stays together even if they… yeah. We’re fine when we’re screwing each other, it’s just the rest of it that we can’t figure out. Let it go, okay?” Eren thought about his parents, who despite caring deeply for each other barely spent more than a couple of weeks together at a time. He knew that he certainly hadn’t helped their marriage, but it had been like that even before his birth. “Better this happens now, okay?” He just never thought he’d end up in a relationship like theirs – hell, he never thought he’d end up in a relationship, period. Maybe it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise, how things had worked out.

His sister didn’t look as if she believed him, but she didn’t go running off to gut a certain bastard captain, either. “You usually don’t give up like this,” she pointed out with some suspicion, her eyes narrowed as she leaned in closer as if to examine him.

“I don’t usually put up with such an abusive asshole for so long unless we need a new set of IDs or something,” was his instant retort, which had her backing off a little. Okay, maybe that was a little uncalled for, but… it rattled him, how much and how quickly Levi could rile him up. How easily he lost control around the man. In the end, he just wasn’t sure if this relationship was such a good idea if Levi had this much power over him; it was probably best to move on before he lost even more of himself. “At least we know now why I stick with one night stands.” He tried to smile, to turn the whole thing into a joke, but his face felt too stiff to move properly.

“Oh Eren.” Mikasa hugged him again, her arms wrapped around him as if she was afraid to let him go. “It’s not your fault that you picked an asshole with control issues.”

That startled a laugh out of him, even if it was a bit weak. “Uhm, yeah, I think it *was* my fault. Need some better taste or something.” He rubbed his cheek against her shoulder despite the starchy feel of her uniform jacket and soaked in the warmth of her, the familiarness of her scent. “Please tell me that your MP is a bastard who insults you all day just so I’m not all alone here.”

He got another pinch to the ribs and a slight laugh from Mikasa. “No… he’s nice. He’s… he’s really nice.”

“Yeah, it figures Ms. Perfect would find the only decent single guy left in the dome. He’ll probably suck when it comes to sex, though.”

This time his sister followed through with a rather hard poke to his poor ribs, which provoked a true laugh through the pain. As he pulled away, he noticed that she struggled not to smile even as she glared at him, her eyes bright with love and humor. “You… oh, I think the lack of decent blood is affecting your poor brain.” She leaned in to give him a kiss on the forehead. “You coming to breakfast?”

“Nah, I don’t feel like running into any assholes right now.” When he noticed a particularly predatory gleam in her dark eyes, he sighed. “Mikasa – no bloodshed at breakfast, okay? Some nice people are trying to eat.”

“Hmm.” She stood up and fussed with her scarf. “I’ll give him a day to see if he comes to his senses and attempts to grovel his way back into your good graces. After that….” A rather disturbing smile curved her lips for a few seconds, before it was hidden behind the red scarf. She waved goodbye to him and then headed off for the day.

Great, it was going to be a repeat of the Timon affair, he just knew it… only this time, his sister’s ‘victim’ could heal, so the massacre would probably last a good day or two. Eren wondered if he should warn Levi… and remembered having Gunther and Olou’s death thrown in his face, along with the rest of the Freedom Corps’ who had died since he’d joined up. Nope, let the bastard find out the hard way, like when Mikasa started flaying the skin off of his back. Maybe then Eren would step in.

He’d finished changing and had just started digging through some of the datapads that Armin had rigged for recreational use when Ymir approached the bunkbed, which was a little odd. Firstly, because Krista wasn’t anywhere to be found, and secondly, because she was usually getting ready to beat up Captain Hange right about now. “You forget something?”

“Nope, thought that we might be able to talk a little.” She was speaking in an old dialect of Spanish, which made him set the datapad down right away; Ymir usually preferred to talk in English if she didn’t want people to eavesdrop, and every now and then she surprised them with a bit of German or Russian. Considering his interest piqued, Eren indicated that he was willing to listen and found himself ushered over to the common area.

Most of the surviving and uninjured recruits were off finishing breakfast so they could start their shifts or training for the day, so the large room was oddly quiet for once; those who did linger around were curled up on their beds or huddled together and talking quietly. It didn’t take much effort to grab a couple of chairs where Eren and Ymir could talk in general privacy together, especially since they were speaking a version of a language that hadn’t been heard in several centuries. “So what’s going on? Don’t tell me that you’ve another girlfriend that you want turned.”

Ymir rolled her eyes at his poor attempt at a joke and even took a swipe at his head before settling back into the padded grey chair. “Very funny. And here I thought I might try to help you out, you moron.”

Eren gave her a narrow-eyed look as he ran his fingers through his hair, now more than a little suspicious; Ymir wasn’t known for helping people out just for the hell of it. “Okay, so let me rephrase that – what the hell do you want?”

He thought he saw a flash of… *something* cross her face at the question, and then she managed to look offended. “Do you really doubt me so much?”

“Fuck yes.” That didn’t take any thinking about on his part. He sat on the edge of the seat, better to get up and run if he needed to, and picked at the side hem of his pants with two of his claws.

Ymir let out a slow breath, her arms wrapped around her lower abdomen and her right hand tapping lightly against a pouch on her left hip. “Look, I can’t say that I blame you – I’m not always trustworthy.” Again there was that weird flash of emotion that was gone too quickly for him to figure out. “But you did me a huge favor recently so I thought maybe I could try to return it somehow.”

“Okay.” That sort of made sense, as he couldn’t imagine that she’d be happy about being in his debt. “How so?” He stared intently at her, trying to figure this out – why couldn’t Armin or Mikasa be here?

“Anyone who knows you, Rebel, can tell that you’re going crazy – okay, crazier – over being stuck here in headquarters.”

“Yeah, and whose fucking fault is that?”

Ymir glared at him, her unease slowly melting away. “I was trying to do you a favor, you little shit, just like I’m doing now!” She gave him a nasty grin and settled back more firmly in the chair. “You just might get off the damn base if you listen to me.”

He really wanted to tell her to fuck off and leave – something urged him to get up and walk away *right then* - but a chance to go outside? To leave headquarters? He found himself sitting still and waiting for her to continue.

“Oh, we being a good boy now?”

“Ymir….”

“All right.” Ymir rubbed at her forehead for a second as if thinking about something. “Look, we’ve wiped out a lot of the Malform lately in the last couple of attacks, which means those assholes can’t have too much more – not unless they’re bringing them in from the outside or changing enough people to be noticed, which doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“They’re really strong, so they must be either really old or newly created by vampires,” Eren pointed out.

“Yeah, and we can’t get too close to them and ‘play’ to find out which when there’s humans about, so we’re just assuming they’re newly turned despite the fact that there’s been no outcry about missing people. And we’re even more fucked if they’re from the outside.” Ymir shivered for a second, probably thinking along the same lines as Eren – if the Malform were from the outside, then Annie, Reiner and Bertolt were getting a *hell* of a lot of help. “Either way, that means that they’re storing them somewhere that the Engineers haven’t found.”

Eren thought about it for a minute or two, and compared Trost to some of the other domes he knew. “You think there’s a lower city level? Wasn’t Salzburg around here?” He’d talked a little bit about such a possibility with Mikasa, but to have Ymir confirm it….

“Give the boy a prize, and to think that Mikasa calls you the pretty one.” Ymir bent over so she could pat him on the head.

He snapped his teeth at her hand when she pulled it away. “Ha, ha. So what, you want to tell Commander Smith that there’s a buried lower level beneath the sewers where the trio are hiding out?” He thought about Levi’s plans for the day and bared his teeth a little more. “Have him pass it on to the Engineers?”

“Wow, you really *are* the pretty one of the bunch, aren’t you?” Ymir gave him a pitying look while she fussed with her ponytail.

“Oh fuck off,” Eren muttered. “You’re not going to suggest-“ He paused to stare at her, some of his anger melting away. “Really? The two of us?” Excitement began to bubble up in his chest, especially when Ymir’s answer was a wicked grin. “But there’s no way Smith and Levi will let me leave.”

“Then don’t ask them.” Ymir flipped back her hair and made a flicking motion with her right hand. “Who can stop us when we get our asses into gear – and we’re good at being sneaky. We’ll wait until those two leave for a patrol or something and then head on out.”

He practically bounced in his seat over the possibility of getting the hell out of here, of *doing* something to strike back at the others after being stuck idle for so long. “They’re leaving to go talk to the Engineers in a couple of hours.”

Ymir’s smile slipped for a moment. “Perfect. We can meet up then – it’s a little sooner than I thought, but I’ve already a couple of things stashed away in the room with the main electrical generator that we can use.”

Just how long had she been planning this? “Uhm, shouldn’t we tell Mikasa or-“

Ymir lunged forward to latch onto his left forearm. “No – the less people we drag into this, the less chance there is of it being fucked up.” She seemed to realize that her fingers were digging into his flesh and let out a nervous laugh. “Come on, Rebel, live a little. You turning into a wuss now that you’ve got a boyfriend? He keeping you on a short leash?” There was a clear, derisive note to her voice.

Even though he knew he was being taunted, he jerked his arm free and glared. “I’m not on anyone’s fucking leash. What time do we meet up?”

A look of intense relief washed over Ymir’s face; was she so happy to clear up the debt that she owed him? “Meet me there at a quarter past 1100, all right? That should give those controlling bastards enough time to get out of here and for everyone to be focused on what’s for lunch rather than what we’re doing.”

“All right, I’ll see you then.” Just a few more hours and he’d be out of here, away from everything that reminded him of Levi, that housed the man’s scent…. He needed to clear his head, to fight, to properly feed; human blood wasn’t enough anymore, not when he felt a lingering weakness and an irritability that wouldn’t go away no matter how much he fed.

They’d go off to see if they could find any lower levels, hopefully track down the hiding place of the Malform and then return to headquarters with some vital information after a bit of necessary feeding. As long as they avoided the trio – something that Ymir would be just as desperate to do as him – they’d be fine. What could go wrong?

*******

“So Sasha and I are going to work our way through *all* of the restaurants in the dome. We’re thinking we can hit them at least twice before the dome opens up again. Then we can post our ratings on them.”

Jean reached over to push down on Connie’s head while he laughed. “Don’t you think you can do some more… I don’t know, romantic things with your new girlfriend other than feed her?”

“But she likes going out to new places to eat,” Connie complained as he shoved Jean aside with an indignant look on his face for a few seconds, before his eyes narrowed and he stuck out his chest. “Not all of us have these snotty girlfriends who like art and fancy things like that.”

“That’s because Mikasa has actual *taste*, so she cares for more than just how things taste.” He felt rather proud of that little wordplay there.

Connie scoffed at him and waved aside the jab at his crazy girlfriend. “Please, she’s dating you so she can’t have that good of ‘taste’, can she?” Connie laughed in the face of Jean’s mock fury and took a few hasty steps forward.

Mindful that they were on patrol and that they had to show a bit of decorum, Jean settled for giving his smart-ass partner a warning look that there would be retribution in the near future and did his best to manage a respectable demeanor as they continued with their job. Just a few more hours and he’d be able to see Mikasa again, so of course it seemed as if this shift was just *dragging*. “Hey, you want to see about the four of us meeting up again later this week?”

Connie appeared to think about that. “Isn’t there some sort of movie festival going on? You can get the tickets and I’ll get the snacks?”

“Deal.” Feeling pleased with himself, Jean took to whistling while he checked out the street ahead of him and the buildings looming above, doing his best not to get too distracted. The cheerful tune faltered when he noticed a familiar figure dashing toward him and Connie. “Ah, isn’t that Marlo?”

“Sure does look like it. You owe him credits or something?” Connie shaded his eyes with his right hand as they stood there and watched the gangly MP run toward them. “Because he looks real intent on - hey, Marlo!”

“Connie! Jean! I need to… to speak to you!” Marlo, his long face dotted with sweat and his normally neat bowl-cut hair disheveled, panted for a few seconds, his back bowed as he hunched over for air.

“Yeah, you’re doing it right now.” For some reason the prim, by the book guy got on Jean’s nerves – he was all about doing his job right when he could, but Marlo… Marlo was all ‘honor’ and ‘pride’ and a bunch of other shit that made Jean’s teeth hurt. “What, you gonna tell us that there’s a pack of Malforms on your trail or something?”

“No, something worse.” Marlo straightened up and clutched at Jean’s jacket, his face pale beneath the sweat. “Where’s your… well, you’re dating someone from the Freedom Corps, right? I need to speak to her right away.”

Made leery by the strange request, Jean batted Marlo’s hands aside. “What the *hell* do you want with Mikasa?”

“It’s very important that I speak to her!” Marlo sounded frantic, his voice breaking over the words. “Commander Dok is sending a squad after Commander Smith!”

Hearing mention of the Freedom Corps’ leader cooled Jean’s temper before he could continue to lash out at the idiot; he paused and glanced around to make sure that no one was paying them any attention. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Yeah, what’s this about Commander Smith?” Connie edge closer to Marlo, a dangerous gleam in his hazel eyes. “You better not be joking!”

“I’m not!” Marlo held up his hands and took a deep gulp, his eyes wide as if in terror. “Look, I was in his office when he received a call from Minister Zackly, who told him to send a squad out to arrest Commander Smith and Captain Ackerman along with Commander Pixis. Commander Dok sent Boris out to tell Becker and his squad to do just that – then he dismissed me as if I was nothing. I came right away to find you two because you’re the only ones I know who are… friends with someone in the Corps.”

Shit, if the commander was sending Becker and his team after Mikasa’s captain and commander, then this was serious. Jean glanced at Connie and found his friend already pulling out his datapad. “What are you doing?”

“Looking up where Sasha is – hopefully she’s not too far away,” Connie muttered as he swiped along the screen.

“Oh.” Then the words sunk in, leaving Jean dumbfounded. “You’re tracking her? You know how much shit you can get in for that?”

“Eh, she can track me, too. We figured this way we know where each other is if we run into trouble.” Connie didn’t seem to grasp the significance of the whole… well, mess.

The two idiots were locked into each other’s signals, which was forbidden – sending messages was fine, but continuous tracking? There were strict rules about how much radiation or signals could be sent ever since the collapse, and tracking was a major no, amongst others. The last thing people wanted was another environmental disaster, and these two…. “Gah! Where is she?”

“Just a few blocks away,” Connie announced with some excitement. “See, *I* know where *my* girlfriend is!” His grin faded beneath the glowers that Jean and Marlo sent him. “Uhm, not the right time?”

Jean shoved him forward, even if he didn’t know the right direction. “Get moving – we need to find her right away.”

“I could always call her… and yeah, maybe this is better talked about in person.” Connie turned more to the left and then hurried across the street, with Jean and Marlo in tow. “You do realize that we’re going to be in trouble for this, right?” He didn’t sound too worried about that.

Jean stumbled a little when he thought about that fact; he was leaving his post to go tell his girlfriend’s friend that his own commander had sent out people to arrest their captain and commander. By all rights, he should turn around and resume his patrol, should ignore the fact that Marlo had ever approached him… but Mikasa…. He couldn’t turn his back on Mikasa, on this maybe affecting her. What if the order for arrest somehow came down to her? Why was Commander Dok arresting people from the Corps? The very same people who were doing their best to fight the Malforms? Something wasn’t right here, and Jean found himself unable to just run away.

“I’ll blame it all on you.”

Connie laughed at that and held up his datapad so he could follow its lead, urging them to turn right down a block and then to head straight. Jean figured that they were getting close when Connie put on a sudden burst of speed, and was proven right when he caught sight of grey and white.

“Sasha!”

The slim figure dressed in Corps’ colors turned toward them and held up her arms. “Connie!” She raced toward them and jumped at Connie, causing him to laugh as he caught her in his arms. “You here to take me to lunch?”

“Not quite!” He stood a bit on his toes to kiss her, the short little twerp, and then pulled away with some reluctance. Meanwhile, a dark complexioned girl stood a few feet away and grinned at their antics. “Uhm, we need your help – Marlo here tells us that your commander is in a bit of trouble.”

Sasha’s goofy smile faded in an instant. “What? Is something wrong? What’s going on with Commander Smith?”

Marlo stepped forward, his expression stern as if he thought that would be convincing. “He’s about to be arrested by Commander Dok on Minister Zackly’s orders, him and Captain Ackerman.”

The mention of the short captain made Sasha pale for some reason. “Oh no, that’s not good, not good at all.” She turned to her partner, her motions frantic. “I’m going to go with them – report back to base that there’s trouble and stick to the patrol, okay?”

“You sure you don’t want me to go with you,” the other girl asked.

“No, I’ll be all right. Let Captain Zacharias know that something is going on and stay here in case something happens.”

“Okay.” The girl gave her a quick salute and then activated her comm, while Sasha turned back toward Connie.

“All right, let’s get going.” She took several brisk steps forward, causing them to hurry up to catch her.

“Ah, is… your partner going to be all right,” Marlo asked as he scrambled to catch up with the girl.

Sasha nodded while looking upward, as if to survey for good rappelling spots. “Lakshmi’s able to handle things on her own – she’ll let them know back at headquarters that something is going on and keep an eye out for an attack out here in case they try to take an advantage of things.” For someone who usually seemed to only care about her next free meal, she certainly seemed focused now to Jean. “So, the commander and the captain were supposed to be at the Engineers today, right? I overheard talk about that at breakfast.”

“Ye-yes,” Marlo stuttered. “Somehow the minister knew that, too.”

Sasha’s lips pressed together in a grim line. “Well, let’s get there quickly, because I don’t think you MPs are anywhere near equipped to face Captain Ackerman. Especially when he’s in a bad mood like he is today.”

“Eh, what does that mean?” Connie rushed toward his girlfriend’s side, but for once she ignored him in favor of firing off a wire. A bit puzzled by her strange concern, Jean hurried to follow her to the Engineer’s headquarters.

*******

They had passed the halfway point to the Engineers’ headquarters, leaving Levi with the impression that maybe, just *maybe*, Erwin was going to be a decent human being for once and not bring up anything to do with Eren. Really, Levi had taken too many blows to the head over the years or something.

“This district is supposed to have some of the best bakeries around. Perhaps we’ll stop on the way back to headquarters and purchase something for Hange and Mike.”

Levi grunted in response, not really giving a shit about either bread or his colleagues.

“And maybe some for Eren, too, since it seems that he’s once again upset with you. At least this time I hear he kept his clothes on, which is an improvement from the previous episode.”

Feeling a headache coming on, Levi pressed his fingertips against his temples. “Really, you want to get into this *here*?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I when you seem to be a captive audience?” Erwin had the audacity to smirk, which caused several people passing by to give him an appraising stare. Bastard looked much too smug just then, at least for a few seconds, and then his expression turned rather serious. “Did you treat it as a challenge, me asking you to not cause any scenes?”

Levi let out a slow breath and tugged at his still uneven bangs, which he’d half-heartedly trimmed before leaving his quarters for the meeting. “Like I give that much of a shit about what you think to set about intentionally pissing off the brat.”

“Then tell me, what *did* you do to have him ranting and raving around the hallways this morning? The person we need if we’re to have any hope of saving this dome and several others?” Erwin paused for a moment. “I was going to wait and tell you this along with Pixis, but Shadis revealed to me something very important last night.” He pitched his deep voice lower, not much past a whisper, very well aware that Levi’s senses were now enhanced due to his recent change. “Something’s happening at a handful of domes, at least half a dozen of them – not just Maria and Bern. In the last few days, there’s been *no* Malform attacks. Not a single disappearance, not a single feeding, *nothing*. It’s like the creatures are in a holding pattern, or….”

“Or they’ve been pulled back by something, *for* something.” Levi let out a string of curse words that had a nearby young man blushing and a mother ushering her two spawn about giving him a major stink-eye. Tough shit, like he cared about their ‘delicate’ sensibilities when it appeared that the vampires were making a major move. The main question was *why* they were making such a move.

“So you think they’re planning something with Eren?” He had to squint and duck his head to hide the fact that his eyes were beginning to glow as anger washed through him at the thought of those assholes… he forced himself to take a deep breath in an effort to regain control.

Erwin was a bit loud in calling out a greeting to an older man walking past, as if eager for a distraction. In a quieter voice he spoke to Levi. “We know he’s their ultimate goal, so I think that’s rather safe to say. So again, what have you done that might jeopardize our relationship with him?”

*Their* relationship with the brat. Wasn’t that just wonderful? “Why do you assume it’s my fault? Maybe the little shit did something to tick me off,” Levi grumbled as he hunched his shoulders forward.

Erwin’s sigh just then was a touch more dramatic than the situation called for, in Levi’s opinion. “Please, your last… ‘paramour’ called you an emotionally constipated asshole who wasn’t fit for human interaction unless it was to torture people. And that was after just three weeks of… well, you get my point.”

“Thanks for bringing it up.” Levi had been rather happy when that particular drama queen had transferred out of the 104th – what, just because you fucked someone meant that you do shit like pay them all these compliments and put up with their messy ass? Hell no. “I still fail to see what-“

“Levi.” Erwin’s shaggy as fuck eyebrows drew together as his already deep voice dropped another octave or two, a clear sign that his patience had reached its limit. “What the hell did you do?”

Levi’d be all offended if the bastard wasn’t right about the situation. “I… may have insulted his ass,” he mumbled as he fidgeted with the hilts of his blades while he refused to look in Erwin’s direction.

“What was that? Did you say something about insulting him? What the hell did you say?” Erwin’s right hand lifted up and pressed against his face, as if *he* was the one with a headache just then.

Glaring at some dipshit couple who had the audacity to walk happily hand in hand in his presence, Levi reflected back on that morning, on how the fight with Eren seemed to have come out of nowhere. It had left him in a bad mood, something that Hange had picked up on immediately when his friend had met up with him for breakfast, and after listening to him bitch about Eren’s ‘impossible mood-swings’ for at least five minutes, she’d insisted on Levi going over word for word the entire fight. Levi had figured it for more of her crazy bullshit but had decided to humor her, having pissed off enough people for the time being, and it wasn’t until he repeated his own words that it had dawned on him what had set off Eren earlier; he was such a fucking idiot.

His hands clenched tight around his hilts, he dropped his gaze onto the smooth, litter-free surface of the walkway. “I… basically accused him of being responsible for the deaths of everyone those… assholes we’re looking for have killed.” Beside him, Erwin stumbled once he made his confession. “The brat wanted to go out in the dome and I told him that more people would die if he did. Then I threatened to kick his ass on top of it.” Yeah, there were those stellar communication skills of his at work.

“Levi….” Erwin truly sounded in pain at the moment, and when Levi glanced in his direction, seemed to be trying to drill his fingers into his own skull. “What amazes me is how you get anyone to give you the time of day in the first place with that mouth of yours.”

“The shitty brat made the first move!” Levi felt that he had to point that fact out.

“He’s probably going senile from old age.”

Levi’s head snapped around so he could glare at the bastard, only to find Erwin grinning at him. Huffing a little at the putdown, he forced his hands to relax around his blades. “Yeah, well, never said the kid was smart-“

“Or had good taste in men.”

“Watch it, you overgrown asshole,” Levi warned with a proper scowl on his face for a moment before he remembered the shit they were in. “So yeah, that’s what has Eren all pissed off. Hange said to give him some time to cool down and then tell him I fucked up.” Like he had a chance of pulling that off without making the situation any worse; his right hand crept to the front pouch on his belt, where he’d stuck the wrapped parcel that Petra had given him this morning at breakfast. The damn thing was supposed to be a gift for Eren, a bit of a joke, and now….

“She’s right. You’re going to have to suck up that prickly ego of yours and say ‘I’m sorry’ for once. We can’t have Eren upset and possibly willing to flee because you didn’t think before speaking.”

Someone was enjoying this situation way too much. Levi glared up at the bastard but didn’t get the chance to point out that wasn’t it funny how Erwin was dishing out the relationship advice when he was all nice and single himself since they’d just arrived at the Engineers’ headquarters. He’d have to save it for the trip back, he supposed, since he doubted that Erwin would drop the topic that easily.

The large, square building was decorated with green and grey banners bearing the bright red rose imposed on a grey shield, the symbol of the Engineers. Levi thought it looked a hell of a lot better than the stupid MP symbol, but then again, anything looked better than that fucking horse head. As they made their way up the stone steps, a pretty young woman with brown hair waited for them at the top. “Commander Smith? Captain Levi?”

“Yes, we are. You must be one of Commander Pixis’ adjuncts,” Erwin said with a smile.

“You can call me Anka.” The girl, Anka, smiled back and ushered them inside the building. “The commander has been looking forward to your visit all day long. It’s… a shame that your previous one had to be postponed.” Her smile slipped for a moment and something shadowed her light-colored eyes.

“Yes, that was a trying day for all of us.” Erwin bowed his head for several seconds. “Still, I’m very happy to be working with the Engineers – you’re very skillful both in battle and in preserving the domes.”

Levi thought the man was laying it on a bit thick, but then again, Erwin didn’t piss off people to the point of having his bangs cut against his will just by talking. Well, not usually. At least not unintentionally. Manipulative fuck, he thought to himself as he tugged on his ragged bangs and followed along quietly.

Anka played the dutiful hostess and pointed out various features of the building while leading them to Pixis’ office, with Erwin providing the appropriate oohs and aahs and Levi keeping track of each turn so he could get the fuck out of here as quickly as possible if necessary (probably best to just break a damn window). After a couple of minutes, they finally reached their destination.

Pixis stood to greet them, a smile on his face and only a hint of alcohol on his breath, which was a show of great restraint for the man. “Ah, thank you, Anka. Erwin, it’s good to see you again.” He blinked a little upon seeing Levi slide into the room. “Captain Ackerman – you’re looking very well. I’m glad that you’ve recovered so quickly.”

“Head wounds, they bleed like fuck-all,” was all Levi said as he sat down in one of the padded chairs set out for guests. Huh, at least Pixis knew how to find a comfortable chair for his office.

The old man laughed and made his way back behind his desk. “Yes, yes they do!” He rubbed his right hand over his own bald head. “I remember the time when I nearly got scalped during an attack – swear that my commander back then was using me as bait because I was bleeding so much! Certainly helped draw all those undead bastards toward us so we could take care of them.” Something dark glittered in his eyes as he reminisced about the past.

“That’s one way to go about things,” Erwin mumbled as he settled his large from as comfortably as he could in the chair.

“All that matters in the end is that it worked.” Pixis motioned to the carafe of coffee that was set out on his desk. “Would anyone like something to drink?”

Not trusting that it wasn’t spiked with something potent as hell, Levi shook his head. “I’m fine.” Erwin did the same, causing Pixis to shrug as he poured himself something to drink.

“So, we’re here to discuss Malforms, are we not? More or less.” The old man paused to sip his drink, his small, dark eyes focused on Levi and Erwin over the rim of his mug.

Erwin leaned forward with his clasped hands resting on his knees. “In general, yes, but I thought you had something you wanted to tell us first.”

Pixis set the mug aside with a soft ‘click’ as it hit the table. “Ah, so this is one of those ‘I’ll show you mine if you show me yours’, eh?” He waved aside Erwin’s faint protest. “No, no, I did invite you here, and you risked much in opening up to me last time so it’s only fair that I do start.” He leaned back in his chair, the leather creaking softly beneath his weight, and continued to regard the two of them; Levi was struck with the image of a clever rat holed up in a wall, waiting for the right time to run out and sink its sharp teeth in its prey.

“I’ll admit, at first I thought that the stress of fighting Malforms might have gotten to you when you told me about the vampires.” As starters went, Levi had to wonder if insulting them was Pixis’ way of saying ‘thanks, but no thanks’ and kicking them out. Yet Erwin remained calm and Pixis continued talking. “The data on the solar radiation sensors you gave me was convincing… but vampires controlling things, plotting with our own chairmen and ministers? It just… it seemed preposterous.” He paused to take a sip of coffee, and Levi swore he caught a whiff of something alcoholic.

“Yet you said ‘seemed’,” Erwin pointed out.

Pixis chuckled and held his mug between his hands. “Yes, ‘seemed’.” His smile smoothed out, once more replaced by that intense, watchful look. “Some of my own people were saying that things didn’t add up, that the Malforms they were fighting were too strong, too strange. And then… then a civilian approached one of my own people with a request to find her daughter. It seems that the young woman had been missing for a few weeks now, and that whenever she tried to file a report with the MP, she was told that there was no record of the girl, hence there could be no missing persons report. The woman was frantic to have someone in the MP to believe her and said that a young man tried to help, only to finally tell her to come to us.” Pixis’ eyes narrowed above the rim of his mug. “What’s more, she said that she wasn’t the only one, that there were other families with a similar story.”

Levi looked away from the old man and stared at Erwin, his lips pressed into a thin line; Erwin didn’t look directly at him but nodded, once, to acknowledge that he was thinking the same thing. For weeks they’d been wondering why there weren’t any reported attacks, why things had seemed so ‘quiet’ in the dome, but if someone was covering up the missing people….

“We told you that there were vampires in the MP,” Erwin said, his deep voice raspy as if he was struggling to hold back his emotions.

“Yes, yes you did.” Pixis closed his eyes for several seconds. “The MP control the missing person’s reports, and they would have access to the dome’s databases that contain everyone’s ID records as well. It would be very easy for someone with the appropriate access level to not only override any report but to eliminate all traces of a person.”

Levi struggled to control his new nature as the pieces fitted together. “And that would be an MP with the sponsorship of a minister or even the chairman himself.” Which of those rich bastards were aiding those shits? Who had given them the access codes?

“Exactly.” Pixis stared into his mug as if wishing it contained something more potent. “I’ve had my people very, *very* carefully look into the matter, follow up with some of the families, and it’s… truly disturbing. The amount of abuse that the MP is getting away with….” He shook his head, disgust plain on his wrinkled face.

“As long as it’s not-“

Levi’s tirade against the MP was cut by a low beep and a slightly embarrassed look on Erwin’s face as he reached for his comm, which he’d tucked into one of his pouches. He sent both Pixis and Levi an apologetic look before setting the small device in his ear, his expression smoothing out as he talked to whomever it was on the other end. “Yes?” He paused to listen for a minute, a hint of confusion furrowing his heavy brow. “No, I didn’t authorize that. I- are you certain? Well, I don’t know anything about it. Yes, look into it and get back to me. Thanks for checking.” There was another pause. “No, things are fine here so far. Yes, I’ll be careful.” He ended the communication, but didn’t remove the comm.

“What the hell was that?” Levi felt on edge all of a sudden; Erwin had let Mike and Hange know that they were meeting with Pixis and so wouldn’t care to be bothered if it wasn’t important. And from the sounds on this end of the call, something was happening that shouldn’t, which sounded important.

Erwin’s right hand crept to the hilt of his blade even as he gave Pixis one of his ‘everything is all right’ bullshit smiles. “One of my captains just called to check with me about something. Seems there was a mix-up and something’s been delivered that we have no record of in our books.”

That bad feeling intensified. “You’re telling me that there’s strangers on base?” Levi jumped to his feet. “We need to get back there!” He leaves for one damn day – not even an hour yet and this shit happens? The base was supposed to be where Eren was *safe*! If something happened to the little shit, Eren was *never* going to let him hear the end of it.

Erwin held up his hand as if that would stop Levi. “Hange’s taking care of it!”

“*It* is my damn responsibility! We need to-“

Before they could argue about it any more, the door to Pixis’ office burst open to admit several people dressed in MP uniforms. Already on edge from the earlier discussion and now the fact that something might be happening back at the base, Levi drew his blades and held them up as he bared his teeth, the world gone grey except for his targets. He took a step forward to cut down the glowing figures, until he recognized the one rushing forward with her hands held up high.

“Captain! Please, don’t kill them!”

“What the *fuck* is wrong with him!” There was the sound of blades being drawn.

“Levi! Please, stop!”

Everyone was yelling at him when he just wanted to tear something apart, wanted to run back home and make sure that Eren was all right yet he forced down his blades. “Blouse, what the *fuck* are you doing here and with these shitty MPs?”

“Uhm, we’re here to save you, sir?” The girl gave a nervous laugh and stopped pushing back the rest of the baby asswipes long enough to rub the back of her head, beneath her ponytail. Her face was sweaty and she looked ridiculous with that huge grin on her face, but she didn’t seem afraid of him. “Ah, hi?” Then again, she was a fucking idiot.

“Ah, are his eyes supposed to glow like that? Is it a Corps thing?”

“What? Connie, are you nuts? No, that isn’t normal!” The taller of the two baby MP’s smacked his idiot partner.

“Oh, I think I know now why they want to arrest you,” the third, unfamiliar MP moaned, looking as he was about to faint.

Yeah, that headache from before had returned with a vengeance. Levi let out a slow sigh and wondered how ticked off Pixis would be if he gutted the pack of them in the old man’s office. Glancing at Erwin, he decided that maybe he should be more concerned with pissing off his own commander just then, before deciding to fuck it – it was Erwin’s fault for dragging him along.

Pixis came to stand in front of his desk, a careful arm’s length away from Levi, whom he eyed with blatant interest, and held up his right hand for silence – the left hand full with a flask. “Let me see if I can sum up this situation. The four of you are here to ‘save’ Captain Ackerman, who doesn’t seem very human at the moment, yes?”

The unfamiliar MP snapped out of his daze and nodded frantically, causing his black hair to flop about. ‘Yes, sir! We’re here to save the three of you, actually! Minister Zackly ordered Commander Dok to send a squad to arrest the three of you! Er, well, you’re just to be brought, sir.”

“I see,” Pixis said before taking a sip from the flask. “Well, not really, but I think I get the gist of it.” He looked over at Erwin. “Zackly’s rather high up there, no?”

“Indeed, some say he’s the true power in the dome, and that Chairman Fritz listens to every word he says.” Erwin’s jaw tightened and he was once more clutching at his blade. “He’s more than powerful enough to give out access to the ID database.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Pixis then turned his attention to Levi. “So that leaves your captain here. You didn’t say anything about vampires in the Corps.” Even though he smiled as he spoke, that darkness was back in his eyes and his left hand hovered near his hilt.

“That’s because he’s not a vampire,” Erwin rushed to explain. “It… would take more time than I think we have right now, but let’s just say that the Corps is protecting something… *someone* that the vampires desperate want, someone who doesn’t feed from humans and who has the ability to pass on his nature to others instead of turning them into Malforms.”

Pixis stared at Erwin for several seconds before the importance of what was being said sunk in, while Levi gritted his teeth together over the fact that Eren’s secret was basically being revealed and it was because of *him*. The old man’s head whipped around to stare at him, to eye him up and down, and then Pixis drained his flask dry in one go.

“We *truly* need to talk, but if what these kids say is true-“

“It is, sir, that other squad will be here in a few minutes!”

“-then you need to get your asses out of here now.” Pixis rushed over to his desk and pressed the key to his comm. “Rico, get to my office right away, you and your team.” He straightened up and turned to face them. “I’ll send you off with one of my best teams – Rico’s been after me that something’s not right, that the Malforms down in the tunnels aren’t normal. If Zackly’s rounding up people who are on to him, it’s best that she’s away from here.”

“What about you,” Erwin asked.

Pixis shrugged as he set his flask aside. “From the sounds of it, they don’t want to do away with me just yet, so I’ll play the drunk old fool and go along with them – or so they think. You’re the ones with what they want, so you’re the real danger. Get in the clear while I slow them down.”

Erwin was still for a moment before he closed the distance between them and clasped the old man on the shoulder. “Thank you.”

Pixis grinned and clapped Erwin’s shoulder in return. “Just get out of here and don’t give them what they want, all right?”

All of this was so very touching, but it wasn’t getting them back to headquarters, was it? And if that tall baby MP with the under-cut hairdo gave Levi the stink-eye one more time, Levi was going to show him his fucking liver. “We need to *go*,” Levi reminded Erwin.

“Yes, just another-“

“You called for me, Sir?” A young woman with chin length, blondish hair and glasses entered the room, her expression carefully guarded.

“Yes, Rico. I want you and your team to escort these people back to the Corps base right away. Assist them on whatever they need,” Pixis ordered, busy typing something on a computer as he spoke.

“… Yes, Sir.” She didn’t seem pleased with the orders, but she saluted her busy commander all the same.

“Great, let’s get going.” Levi shoved his way out of the door, not even bothering to sheathe his blades; if the MP were coming for them, he was ready for the fight. “What’s the quickest way out of here? Might be best to take a back way, too.”

“You’re in luck, the back way is the quickest,” Rico drawled. Once they were out in the hallway, the rest of her team fell in step behind them, a guy with close-cropped dark hair, a girl with brown hair pulled into a bun, and an older guy with greying black hair.

“Uhm, should we all be going together,” the gangly, dark-haired MP asked.

“Do you really think you can go back to the MP after ratting out Commander Dok’s orders,” the short one pointed out. “Consider that your resignation.”

“I know that,” the other kid snapped. “It’s just-“

“Shut up,” the tall idiot whom Mikasa seemed to think was good-looking bitched. Didn’t Eren say he was horse-faced? “Just… shut up. None of us are going back now.”

“You’ll love the Corps!” Blouse latched on to the short kid and hugged him even as they hurried through the hallways. “It’s-“

“Oi! Shut it like the kid said,” Levi ordered. Really? MPs after their asses, they just found out he was a vampire hybrid and *this* is what they bitched about? They really were a bunch of babies.

He caught a grateful look from Rico and an amused one from Erwin, and assorted pouts from the babies. About to kick the shits into the nearest wall for their troubles, he was spared the effort as they finally reached the outside.

“We need to make some serious speed,” he told Rico.

“Yes, but we also don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.” Erwin reached out to push Levi’s left arm down before he could fire off a wire. “At least get a few blocks away from here before we go swinging through the air for everyone to see.”

“You think it’s a fucking coincidence that they sic the MPs on our ass the *exact* same time that strangers show up at headquarters?” Levi struggled not to shout, not to let his emotions overwhelm him again but it was difficult. “Have you heard from Hange yet?” All the time he rushed down the street, just short of an outright run.

Emotions flashed across Erwin’s face, which was just as telling as the man’s silence; if there was nothing to worry about, Erwin would have come out to say something right away and not struggle for a ‘safe’ answer. “No,” he finally admitted.

“Yeah, I thought so.” What the hell was happening back there? Was Eren holed up somewhere safe? Was he tearing people apart, him and Mikasa? The little shit just *had* to be safe.

“He’ll be fine – Mike, Hange, Mikasa and Ymir are there. Those are our best fighters, Levi.”

“Mikasa? Is something wrong with Mikasa?” Horse-face pushed himself forward to speak with Erwin and Levi – at least until he realized that he was close to Levi and then he drew back in a dramatic manner. “What’s going on, is she all right?”

“She’s as fine as she can be, considering that she’s currently on base where we haven’t heard shit from lately and strangers broke into,” Levi shot back. “We’ll know better once we get there.”

“You know, we’d have a better time of sneaking around if people would keep their mouths shut,” Rico hissed, sounding more than a little put out at the moment.

Taking the hint, Levi snapped his mouth shut even as he continued to glare at the asswipe MP, who continued to glare back as well. He could tell that he made the idiot uncomfortable… which was priceless to think about, considering whom the asswipe was dating. Oh yeah, it should be real fun when they reached the base.

Eren just better be all right when he got there.

*******

Ymir started when she heard the door to the generator room slide open. Despite the dim light inside, she could see two men approaching, one very slim, tall and carrying a bag, the other almost as tall and of a stockier build with a large box slung over his shoulders. As they came closer she noticed that the taller man appeared older, with dark hair and a trim beard, while his partner had blond hair and was clean shaven. Quite the contrasting couple. The smell of mechanical lubricant that filled the room made it difficult for her to pick up the men’s scent – it would also make it difficult for Eren to smell anything, which might explain why Annie had chosen the room.

“You Ymir,” the blond man asked with a gruff voice.

“Well, you guys would be screwed if I wasn’t, right?”

The blond guy huffed once, while the tall one merely looked her over, his dark eyes intent upon her as if sizing her up. For a human, he seemed like someone who would be a challenge, his posture loose but alert, his gaze constantly moving as if to search out targets – or trouble. She had to wonder if he’d been given any vampire blood to improve his senses and reflexes.

“So, Eren will be here in a few minutes,” she said, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible. “You probably don’t want to be out in the open when he comes through the door.”

“We’ll take him down quickly,” the tall man said, his voice even deeper than the blond’s. “You’re not going to get in our way, right?” His eyes narrowed as he asked that.

“Hell no.” Ymir found herself taking a step back despite herself. “Look, all I want is for you to get him, do it quickly and quietly, and then get your asses out of here without anyone the wiser. You won’t have any trouble from me.”

“Good.” Tall, dark and creepy smiled while his partner stepped back and laid down the box; he opened his hip-length black coat and pulled out what looked to be a tranquilizer gun, revealing a flash of an actual *gun* while he did so, along with something strapped across his chest. Holy shit, Annie had armed these guys with projectile weapons? Inside a dome? “Because I don’t think you want a taste of this if you get out of hand.” He held up the tranquilizer gun and waved it about.

Ymir frowned as she studied it. “What, you gonna try to give me a cold or something? That shit doesn’t work against us. Even tranq’ing doesn’t do much good because of the dosage required.”

Mr. Creepy’s smile became even creepier, if possible. “You forget my employers – this is a purely ‘in-house’ product, usually meant for discipline purposes. I assure you, it’ll drop the target within seconds… and you as well if you try anything.”

She found it difficult to look away from the syringe after that revelation; of course the bastards would know how to take down other vampires, she was just amazed that they hadn’t used it against her or Eren already. Didn’t they trust other vampires to use it? Pushing aside the fear she felt at being near such a weapon, she forced a cocky grin on her face. “There won’t be a need to use it against me.”

“We’ll see.”

Shit, Annie had done her best to think of everything, hadn’t she? “I’d worry about yourself – if you miss with that, Eren’s going to have your guts for a necklace,” she warned.

All Mr. Creepy did was smile a little more. “That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?” He flipped open his coat again, to reveal what she’d missed when she’d been so focused on the guns strapped to his hips. “Because if I fail to bring in our boy, this place is going to come crashing down.”

Fuck… that bitch really *had* thought of everything – there was enough plastic explosives strapped to the man’s chest to blow up a good portion of the building. “How is that going to give Annie what she wants,” she demanded to know, the words coming out in a squeak past a throat gone dry.

“You know he heals real good; she’ll just drag what remains of him out of the rubble before he can put up much of a fight.” The bastard didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that he’d be splattered amongst the rubble at the time.

Yeah, and Annie would probably kill Ymir and Krista before they finished healing, too. All that mattered was Eren, after all… Ymir wiped her hands over her face as if she could just as easily wipe away the nightmare that this day was becoming. “Okay, I get the point. If I don’t want this to become a total cluster-fuck, I help you out.”

“She said you were smart.”

Ymir couldn’t help but laugh at that. ‘Smart’? Yeah, if she was smart, she would have run for the farthest dome away from Eren as soon as she realized that he was here.

“Just get your ass out of sight, okay? He’ll be here any second now,” she snapped.

Mr. Creepy gave her one last grin before doing what he was told, even going so far as to tilt the hat he was wearing that bore ‘Trost Heating and Cooling’ on its front, while Blondie quietly followed him several feet back until they were lost in the shadows. All she heard after that was the hum and whir of the large machines that effectively controlled the temperature of the Corps’ headquarters, which should help confuse Eren’s senses. Now if only the bastard would just show up so she could get this over with and get back to Krista….

It seemed like forever before the door slid open again, but really had to have only been another minute or two; Eren was quiet as he approached, his hands shoved into the pockets of his white pants and for once dressed in a full uniform; maybe he thought that way he’d stand out less if anyone noticed him outside . “So, are you ready? We should probably leave quickly before Levi returns or Mikasa comes looking for me.”

She summoned her most reassuring smile and took a step backwards to draw him a little further into the clearing between the machinery. “Yeah, just give me a minute to get some of the stuff I squirrelled away. I thought we might need a change of clothes and a few other things….”

“Something to break through bricks or concrete would be best – an axe or a pick. I wonder what Mikasa did with that-“ Eren frowned and turned in the direction that the two men had disappeared into, his eyes beginning to glow. “Is there-“

He had just taken a step forward when there was a quiet hissing sound and something shot into his chest. Making a growling sound as he leapt forward, he swiped with his claws at the burly blond guy, who turned just in time for the large box to take the brunt of the blow. Still, he was knocked to the ground while sparks flew through the air from where Eren’s claws scraped along the box, and then the tall guy was there, a blade in one hand and the tranq gun in another.

“Damn, you’re a strong, aren’t you?” He fired another dart at Eren, this one hitting him in the throat, but Eren didn’t seem to notice, not with his eyes blazing and his lips pulled back from a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. Shit, Ymir had heard about this – about when Eren seemed to lose all semblance of humanity, but she’d never witnessed it herself. Terrified that the crazy bastard was going to kill the humans and set off the explosives, she threw herself at Eren’s back and wrapped her arms around him, desperate to slow him down.

He struggled to pull free, savage growls and hisses spilling from his mouth as his claws swung about wildly, but she managed to hold on while the human shot him yet again. When Eren swiped at him with his left arm, the man swung out with the blade and cut it off below the elbow, sending blood splashing everywhere.

“What the hell!” Ymir was so startled that she almost let go of Eren, yet he was finally tiring, his body slowly slumping forward in her arms. “Why did you do that?”

Mr. Creepy eyed Eren warily, his bloody blade held ready as if he was about to carve him up any second now. A faint hint of steam rose from Eren’s mutilated arm, but only enough to slow down the blood-flow – it wasn’t beginning to heal as it should.

“Look, he just took triple the dosage for a vampire his size, so don’t give me any shit. And it’s not like we’re taking him out of here in original condition anyway.” Mr. Creepy took a cautious step forward and when Eren didn’t react, pulled him from Ymir’s arms to lay him out on the floor. “Come on, Chaz, time to get to work.”

Blondie nodded and hauled himself onto his feet, wincing as if he was in a good bit of pain during the process. He set the box on the floor and opened it up to reveal a padded interior, while Ymir watched the two of them with confusion.

“Wait, ‘original condition’? What are you going to do?” A feeling of dread washed through her as Blondie rummaged through the bag to fetch cauterizing patches and Mr. Creepy held the blade over Eren… and then brought it down over his right leg, severing it around the knee. “Fuck! Stop it!”

Blondie stopped her from rushing forward while Mr. Creepy pointed the tranq gun at her. “We’re following our orders, Miss, so make sure you follow yours.”

“You’re mutilating him!” She watched as blood flowed from the clean wound – part of her mind realized that the vampires must have supplied these sadistic fucks the blade as well for it to cut so easily through bone – and she shuddered in horror at how Eren’s healing ability was so obviously suppressed.

The tall bastard had the audacity to chuckle as he hacked off Eren’s other leg. “It’s nothing he won’t recover from – but it’ll take some time, especially with so much of that juice in his system, and it means he won’t give us any fight if he wakes up early and we can sneak him out of here easier this way.” He leaned down, mindful of the mess, and slapped on the patches to stop the blood-flow. Once that was done, the two of them picked up Eren and tucked him away inside the box – a box that looked too small to hide a person inside. At least, a person with all of their limbs….

Feeling sick to her stomach, Ymir closed her eyes and forced herself to take a few deep breaths. Had she really just stood here and watched people hack apart a friend? And now she was going to let them carry him away, completely helpless? There had to be something she could do. Steeling herself, she opened her eyes-

To find Mr. Creepy aiming the tranq gun at her once again. “Did I mention that if we don’t get the target out of here by a certain time, this place still blows up?” A corner of his mouth twitched upward. “Seems someone out there doesn’t have much faith in you, Miss.”

Fuck. *Fuck*. How long had Annie been planning this that she’d thought out every little fucking detail? Biting back on a snarl, Ymir flexed her claws a few times and forced them to retract. “Then we’d damn well better get your asses gone, shouldn’t we?”

“Yes, we should.” The asshole kept the gun in his hand while he allowed his partner to clean the blade and sheathe it for him, then tuck it back into the bag. Once Eren and the damn box was slung over Blondie’s back and the bag over Mr. Creepy’s shoulder, they motioned to Ymir that they were ready to go.

Someone was going to find the mess in here, unless she came back to clean up later. Maybe she could rummage up something useful from Captain Hange’s lab or-

The door slid open before they reached it, revealing Captain Hange standing just outside. Backlit from the hallway, she lifted her head and smiled. “Ymir, I didn’t expect to find you here. I thought you were helping Eren with something.”

*Fuck*. Why was the scientist here? She had to think quickly in order to cover her tracks. “I was busy with some strangers who were unfamiliar with the base.”

“Yes, she’s been extremely helpful,” Mr. Creepy just had to add, making her want to smack that wry grin off of his face.

“Has she now?” The captain’s smile grew even wider, leaving Ymir to wonder who was being the creepiest just then. “Perhaps she can tell me where Eren’s disappeared to, then, or why you’re on base without proper authorization.”

Mr. Creepy remained standing there with that ridiculous grin on his face for a moment, and then he leapt forward, a blade suddenly appearing in his right hand from the sleeve of his black coat. Captain Hange had to backpedal out of his way or lose her face, her hands scrambling for her blades at the same time. “Get the target out of here!”

“Shit!” Ymir was torn over what to do… until she saw that Captain Hange hadn’t come alone – it was clear that she’d brought backup. “Keep moving,” she ordered Blondie as she swiped at Moblit to force him back, doing her best not to kill anyone if she could avoid it. Any hopes she had of that ended when Blondie pulled a gun and shot Adriano in the chest. The man cried out as he fell, and there was the sound of more shooting.

“Projectile weapons? Where did you find those?” Captain Hange sounded much too fucking happy about the fact that people were dying from outlawed weapons at the moment, even as she dodged out of the way of being shot.

“Come a little closer and I’ll tell you.” Mr. Creepy waved the gun about but didn’t seem ready to fire unless he had a target in sight, which meant he knew what the fuck he was doing. He covered their backs while Blondie and Ymir raced for the nearest exit.

“You know that we can’t hold off all of the Corps, right,” Ymir told the noisy idiots as they made their way outside – where of *course* more people were waiting for them. So much for sneaking Eren out without anyone the wiser.

Mr. Creepy’s smile just then made her want to tear out his throat – where the *hell* had Annie found this monster? “There’s no need – we just had to get the target all wrapped up and out the door. They’ll take care of the rest.” He held up his gun and fired two shots into the air before she could ask another question, then began to fire at the people rushing toward them.

“Dammit!” Ymir rammed into him to jostle his aim, and before he could turn on her, there was a loud explosion as part of the front wall around the Freedom Corps headquarters collapsed. Everyone was stunned at the noise, just standing there while a billow of dust blew forward, and then Ymir picked up that foul yet intoxicating scent. “Malform!”

Moments after her screamed warning, pale grey shapes darted out of the dust to rush toward everyone, and the three of them were the last of the Corps’ concern. Well, almost everyone’s – Ymir felt something slam into her from the side and knock her into the ground.

“Where is he? What did you do to him?” Mikasa’s voice was a rough growl, the words barely understandable as she crouched over Ymir with her eyes blazing as bright as the sun and her fangs so distended that her lower jaw jutted forward. “Tell me before I rip out your fucking throat!” She pulled back her right arm, her claws half the length of her fingers and her hand already descending.

Ymir shook her head, unable to form the words in the face of Mikasa’s rage, unable to admit to her betrayal, and was about to close her eyes when a pale blur smashed into Mikasa. “Don’t hurt her,” Krista snarled.

Jumping to her feet, Ymir rushed over to pull her girlfriend from a hissing Mikasa and got a lucky kick in to the homicidal bitch’s head, leaving Mikasa stunned and on the ground. “Come on,” she urged, not wanting to be anywhere near Mikasa when the woman recovered. All around them was chaos, was the Corps fighting Malform, and somewhere in the middle of it had to be a certain vampire. Maybe there was still time to make things right….

“What’s going on? Why’s Mikasa after you? Where’s Eren?”

“Not… not now,” Ymir pleaded as they dodged around the carnage. The Corps was doing the best it could, was fighting back as always, but the Malform seemed especially bloodthirsty today. She searched the crowd to see if she could spot Mr. Creepy or Blondie, hampered by the dust-filled air, and spotted a familiar blond head – not Blondie, but Reiner. Why wasn’t she surprised that he was here? “Come on.”

With Krista’s hand held firmly in hers, she ignored the yells of rage and screams of pain around them, the overwhelming scents of blood and fear and focused just on the sight of a familiar enemy. She could still make this right somehow. She could.

The large, metal box made its way to Reiner with Blondie struggling beneath its weight, his face slick with sweat and an unhealthy shade of red. He stumbled to his knees before Reiner as if a loyal subject kneeling before his king, while Mr. Creepy fought off some unlucky Corps member who had gotten too close. Ymir watched as Reiner leaned down and undid the straps that fastened the box to the poor guy’s back, then hesitated a moment before lashing out with his claws, a look resembling pity on his face as blood poured down Blondie’s throat.

“NO!” Despite her shriek of rage and fear, nothing happened other than Blondie tumbling to the ground and Bertolt shouldering the burden of the box. Reiner looked up at her as she approached, and Mr. Creepy held up the tranq gun – not aimed at her, but at Krista. She screamed again, her arms held out to protect her lover.

“You know what happens if you get in our way – if *anything* gets in our way,” Reiner explained, and she noticed that he held a small device in his hand. “We’re taking Eren out of here, *now*.”

“We have to stop them!” Krista pressed against Ymir’s back as if she wanted to tear into Reiner personally. “We have to-“ Something caused her to gasp, to pull back, but Ymir didn’t have the time to figure it out, not when her world was falling down around her.

If she charged forward to attack, Mr. Creepy would fire the gun, not so much at her but at Krista. What would a dosage do to a nearly turned hybrid? Eren had managed against it, but he was the original, was the progenitor and had turned centuries ago. Could Krista survive a dose after just one feeding? What if she was harmed with that stuff in her system? And what if Reiner set off the bombs? Also, what about the carnage around them? Would it end once Eren was away? What about Eren?

Ymir was the cause of all of this death and destruction, it was up to her to put an end to it however she could – for her to take responsibility for once in her life. Eren was helpless because of her, the Corps in shambles, and everyone knew it was her fault. There was nothing left to do but to ride this through and hope she could somehow make up for choosing the wrong side in the first place.

Turning around quickly, she grasped Krista’s chin and brushed their lips together. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered even as she drove her fist into her lover’s stomach with every bit of force she could muster. Krista’s eyes went wide as she crumbled forward, her mouth moving silently. “I have to do this,” Ymir tried to explain even as she pulled away.

While Krista fell to her knees onto the ground, Ymir forced herself to turn away and approach Reiner. “Well, are we leaving or what? These pathetic Malform aren’t going to keep these guys occupied for long.”

Bertolt stared at her in shock while Reiner eyed her warily for a few seconds until he nodded once. “Okay, let’s get going. We need to reach the tunnels as quickly as possible.”

“Where’s Annie?” Not that she really wanted to see the bitch, but it was odd that she was missing right about now after all the effort she’d put into this.

Reiner grinned, the expression a bit pained, and looked over Ymir’s shoulder. “She’s… busy holding off the rescue party.”

Ah, that explained why Mikasa wasn’t currently ripping out Ymir’s spine. “Great.” At least that was one less worry. “Less talking, more running.” Before Krista recovered or Mikasa kicked Annie’s ass. Ymir shoved Reiner forward to illustrate her point, ignoring the baleful look that Mr. Creepy gave her – it at least got him to stop staring at Krista, which was getting annoying.

They barely had taken a few steps when she heard Krista call out her name. “Ymir… don’t… go!” Gritting her teeth together, Ymir hardened her resolve and hurried along faster. “Y-mir! You… promised!”

“This going to be a problem?”

Ymir shoved Reiner again, desperate to get away as quickly as possible. “No, it’s not,” she lied. Get them away from the Corps, from Krista, and then once Eren was able to fight back… then she’d make amends, would fix things and could return to Krista. But for now, she had to try to end the bloodshed while there was still a Corps left standing. Hopefully Krista would understand that one day.

Her gaze focused on the metal box that contained a drugged and mutilated Eren, her ears filled with her lover’s anguished pleas and the screams of humans as they fought for their lives, Ymir chased after Reiner, Bertolt and Mr. Creepy as they sought the nearest tunnel entrance so they could flee into the wilderness.

*******

 


	23. Divide, part two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the second part of 'Divide'. Uhm, still a bit of violence going on here, so fair warning. Some tough spots for a few characters, no?
> 
> As always, thanks so much for the kudos and the comments!  
> *******

*******

Why the hell was it that when you really, *really* wanted to get somewhere quickly, it seemed to take fucking forever to get there? Levi fired off another wire, frantic to get to the base in order to save a certain little shit’s troublesome ass.

“You do realize that once the MPs fail to find you back at our headquarters that they’ll send out a bulletin – and you’re rather obvious with the way you’re swinging about,” Rico called out as she sailed past him.

“I don’t fucking care,” Levi gritted out. By that point, he hoped to be back at his own headquarters, and let the damn MP try dragging him out of it. Hange should have enough acid to lob over the walls to-

A frantic beeping came from Erwin’s comm, causing the man to curse as he triggered the message. Levi looked over his shoulder and felt a weight settle on his chest when Erwin’s face paled. “That was an emergency signal – there’s been an attack at the base.”

Levi didn’t wait for more of an explanation, he angled for the nearest building while firing off another wire, doing his best to propel forward with as much speed as possible. They would turn after clearing this next building, and….

“Fuck.” Smoke rose in the distance, around where the Freedom Corps headquarters lay. Behind him, the baby MPs were busy babbling questions to Erwin, their voices falling silent as they cleared the corner as well. Someone gasped, probably Blouse, and Rico once more caught up to Levi.

“That… that doesn’t look like a fire. The smoke looks all wrong. It’s the type when something collapses.”

“Or something was forced to collapse.” Colors faded away when Levi thought about someone attacking the Corps’ base, his *home*, and he could tell by Rico’s sudden breath that she’d noticed. “The fuckers got tired of waiting for him to come out.” They attacked Levi’s *home* and were taking his- were taking Eren by force.

“All I can get out of Mike is that the wall’s been breached and they’re fighting off Malforms. He said that the trio have Eren and to look for them carrying a metal box.” Erwin’s face was a mask of pure fury as he shot past. “He also said that Ymir… Ymir betrayed us. She’s with the trio now.”

Then she was going right at the top of the list of assholes whom Levi was about to gut with his nice new claws, wasn’t she?

“What the hell is going on? Why would someone do this to the Corps? How could someone get their hands on explosives,” Rico demanded to know. “Those are class-A restricted-“

“Not now,” Levi snarled, unwilling to waste the breath explaining things when all of his energy was focused on getting to where he wanted as quickly as possible. Down below, the streets were filling with people as they ran from what had to be one hell of a nasty fight, the Malforms probably not satisfied with tearing apart the Corps.

“Where are the MPs? They should be down there helping people,” the too earnest for his own good baby MP complained, not quite grasping the fact that Nile had probably been given a call telling him to clear his people out of this area – to concentrate them around the more affluent districts.

“I see Malforms on the loose.” Erwin’s jaw tightened, probably because if the undead freaks had gotten this far out, then it was a bloodbath back at base.

Rico motioned to the girl and the guy with the black hair. “Go tend to them,” she ordered. “We’ll continue onward to the Corps headquarters.” Her people nodded before following orders and peeling off.

Meanwhile, Blouse managed to swing ahead and caught onto the edge of a building, her attention focused below. “Captain! You said Ymir is with Eren, right?”

Actually, Erwin had said it, but Levi wasn’t about to argue. “What about it?” He cut free his wire and twisted about in the air, coming in hard against the wall but finally able to trust in his claws and healing ability to help him latch on. Behind him, he heard the MPs and Engineers curse and mutter ‘what the fuck is he’, while Blouse didn’t even blink an eye at his antics. Oh yes, he would have a nice chat with the girl once this was all over.

She pointed at the ground, toward some rapidly moving figures. “Doesn’t that look like her?”

“Huh?” Levi looked downward and sure enough, he caught the flash of grey and white grouped with three other figures – two of them tall, one a blond and another a brunet with something large and metallic strapped to his back. “How the hell…?” Did the girl have enhanced senses, too?

“Ah, my dad taught me to hunt.” Blouse laughed a little while Levi prepped another wire; he’d seen Eren leap from heights before, but he wasn’t going to chance a fucked up landing when he wanted to be kicking ass as soon as he hit the ground. “You tend to notice little things like that.”

“Erwin-“

“Go after him, we’ll head on to the base.”

Relieved that his friend wasn’t making him choose, Levi fired the wire even as he leapt, feeling the rush of freefall for several seconds before the wire caught and he swung the rest of the way down. Once he was close enough to the ground he let go, landing in a crouch about ten feet ahead of the fleeing pack.

“Going somewhere?” As he spoke, he heard two more people land behind him.

The blond vampire, Reiner, came to a halt first, with the rest of them falling in place behind him. Ymir’s eyes went wide when she saw Levi, and the taller vampire, Bertolt, hovered near Reiner. “As a matter of fact, we are.” The blond asshole stepped forward with his claws fully extended and his eyes glowing red. “You might want to get out of the way.”

“What the hell *are* you guys?” Rico sounded more pissed off than confused, which was a good sign.

“That’s a shitty vampire, which is responsible for all of these Malforms,” Levi explained as he extended his own claws. “Now give me Eren, you sorry fuck.” Where was the brat? Hadn’t Hange said something about a box? Was Eren inside of it? But how, when it looked so small? Sure enough, Bertolt shifted back in a protective manner with the box. “What did you do to him?”

“Eren’s coming with us – he’s *ours*,” Reiner growled, his fangs on full display. “You got to play with him long enough, but he’s going where he belongs.”

Levi had enough – hearing this shit just made him more pissed off. Letting loose a rough snarl, he leapt forward… and nearly yelped when there was a loud noise and something painful bit into his left shoulder. Thrown off-balance both in surprise and pain, he landed a couple of feet shy of Reiner, near a tall man in a dark coat.

“Look at you, son. Been a few changes, no?”

Levi stared up in shock at… no, it couldn’t be Kenny. He’d left the man behind in Tartarus years ago – had been *left* behind by the bastard as Kenny went off on his jobs, left to struggle on his own until Erwin had come along and dragged him kicking and screaming into the Corps. Yet there Kenny stood, looking older, looking meaner, and holding some sort of projectile weapon in his right hand while aiming what looked to be a tranq gun at Levi with his left.

“Shit, Levi!”

Reacting to the panic in Ymir’s voice even if she was a traitorous bitch, Levi forced himself to move despite the lingering astonishment upon seeing the man who’d raised and then abandoned him *here*, in Trost, with a pack of shitty vampires. He wasn’t quite fast enough since he caught the dart in his left arm, but he yanked it out as soon as it landed. Even so, he felt something burning where it hit, something racing through his body that made him feel sluggish and dizzy….

“Shoot him again!”

“That was the last one! I had to use three on the target.”

Shaking his head as he heard a cut-off anguished scream, Levi forced his body to move, to not give in to the dizziness. Everything was blurry for a couple of seconds and then the world snapped back into focus, just in time for him to see Reiner pulling his claws from the one Engineer’s body.

“Mitabi!” Rico paused in trying to chop off Ymir’s head to scream out her comrade’s name, leaving the traitorous bitch alone so she could charge at Reiner. Levi went to go help her, his steps slowly growing steadier with each foot forward, but Kenny was on front of him again, now swinging a blade at his head.

“Ah, don’t think they want you interfering.”

“I don’t give a *shit* what you think!” Levi tore his claws along the bastard’s arm, but only ripped through black cloth and along some metal braces that were hidden beneath the coat. “I’m going to kill you!” The drugs still slowed him down, but not enough that he couldn’t fight back.

“We-we’re wasting time, come on!” That sounded like the dark-haired vampire, Bertolt.

“You’ll fucking stay here so I can rip you apart,” Levi shouted, unwilling to let these assholes go anywhere until he was finished with them, until they were piles of goop on the street with Kenny’s body strewn about. Until he had Eren. Anger helping him to push past the drug-induced weariness, he knocked the blade from Kenny’s hand and went for the man’s throat-

Only to be shot in the gut by something. The pain was excruciating, was like fire burning through him, and he couldn’t do anything but drop to the ground while all four of them went running off, the metal box containing Eren bouncing about as it got farther and farther away. Levi knelt hunched over as his guts slowly knit back together, the rage he felt over his failure pouring out in a scream, his fists pounding into the pavement once he could finally move.

“Are you done with the drama now?”

The sound of Rico’s weak voice had him up and on his feet, his lips drawn back from his teeth and his bloody hands reaching for her before his brain caught up with the rest of him and he realized that she wasn’t a threat. “What?”

“How the hell are you any different from them,” she asked, sounding utterly exhausted. A dark bruise colored the right side of her face, her glasses knocked askew, and she held her blades loosely as if she didn’t have much strength.

“Because I’m not ripping out your throat?”

She considered that for a few seconds and nodded. “That girl – she could have killed me but she didn’t. It was like she didn’t really want to fight, and when that other vampire was about to do to me what he did to… well, she came up from behind and hit me. Nearly knocked me out, but I could hear her tell me something before she pushed me to the ground.” She paused to rub at the unbruised side of her face.

“And that would be?” Levi wanted to run after them, to track them down, but Ymir had left a message for a reason, untrustworthy bitch that she was. There had to be something to it – that and he had no fucking clue where to start even looking for them.

“Yeah, she said ‘tell him we’re going outside’.” Rico stared at Levi as if waiting to see his response.

Levi grimaced at his bloody hands and reluctantly wiped them on his filthy pants as he pondered the message; it made sense, since the trio had to know that Levi would tear the dome apart looking for Eren. If they went to another dome then that would mean taking the tunnels, which would be easy to track to the new dome with Mikasa’s help, and again, would lead to Levi tearing apart the enclosed environment. It would be easier to lose him if they had a much more open space… at least theoretically.

“So, aren’t you going after them? Gonna stop them before they commit suicide?”

Levi double-checked that Rico had already tended to her fallen colleague before motioning for them to head towards the Corps’ headquarters. “Not really, not when I know where they’re headed.” Mikasa and Armin had plenty of experience outside, and hadn’t Blouse said that her father had taught her to hunt? All they had to do was reach where the tunnel exited outside the dome and track them from there. “We need to check what’s going on at the base first and get some supplies.” It hurt to walk in the opposite direction of where they were taking Eren, but he’d find them soon enough. He’d find them and then they’d regret every moment of their pathetic existences – he’d see to it.

“Yeah, but they’ll have a good lead on you by then.” Rico seemed unable to grasp that Levi wasn’t going to rush after the people who had just kicked their asses – not until he had a better plan and better odds. “Those monsters have to be stopped!”

“Those monsters can’t deal with sunlight,” Levi pointed out as he forced his tired body to move – what the *hell* had Kenny shot into him? Hadn’t he said something about using it on the ‘target’? Did that mean they’d dosed Eren with this shit? “I think we’ve got a bit of time if they’re going outside.”

That made the Engineer shut up for about a minute as she gaped at him with shock. “But no one can survive outside!”

He let out a weary sigh as he rubbed at his healed stomach. “Really? You just fought some shitty vampires which are things of legend, and you’re giving me shit over going outside? If one thing can exist, you ever stop to think that the other is possible?”

Rico continued to stare at him as if he was insane for several seconds. “But… we’ve been told… that’s….”

“You’ve also been told that vampires are myths. Ever wonder who’s behind *that*? And then who’s behind the whole ‘the outside is inhabitable’ story, too?” He wasn’t going to waste too much longer on this crap – either she got with the program or he was leaving her behind.

Her mouth opened and close a few times while she lifted her blades as if ready to strike him down, and then all of a sudden her shoulders slumped. “And what about *you*? I thought vampires couldn’t stand sunlight.”

Finally, they were getting somewhere. Levi chuckled a little as he shuffled past some knocked over incinerator cans, the base coming into sight. “I told you that I’m not one of them – sunlight won’t bother me at all.” What had happened to the Malforms? Had they already spread further into the dome?

Rico sighed and waved her blades about, as if looking for something to hack into. “So were those vampires responsible for the powerful Malforms we’ve been fighting, for people turning so quickly?” She sounded as if she really, really wanted Levi to say ‘no’.

Well tough shit, the world didn’t work that way – you couldn’t hide from the truth just because it wasn’t pretty. “Yep.” Seeing the damage up close, Levi really wished that he’d been able to land a few hits on the vampires at least, to rip out a few choice organs or *something*. Those bastards had really done their best to tear the place down.

“And this ‘Eren’ you were screaming about? Why does everyone want him?”

“Because he’s not a vampire, either.” The woman could fight and she seemed bright enough, but there was no way that Levi was going to trust someone he’d just met with Eren’s big secret. Rico gave him a look to let him know she wasn’t buying the explanation, but she was also bright enough to know not to push it just then.

Stepping into the gaping hole of the main wall, Levi was immediately taken back by the odor of blood, fear and death that waited for him in the courtyard. All around him were signs of an intense battle, were the wounded and the weary, the liquefying remains of Malforms and barely turned humans, and up ahead were a cluster of battered Corps fighters huddled together. Doing his best to breathe through his mouth, he summoned up a burst of energy and hurried to join them.

*******

Rage filled Mikasa, coursed through her body and helped to shake off the pain she felt as she pushed back onto her feet, the throbbing in her head inconsequential as she searched about for Ymir. For the traitor, the backstabbing bitch who had dared to call Eren a friend, to come begging for a favor and then turned on him the second it was done. How *dare* she? How dare she hand Mikasa’s brother over to the creatures that had hounded them, had hunted them down for centuries? How could they have ever trusted one of them in the first place?

Mikasa had known something was wrong as soon as Captain Hange had interrupted the training session earlier, had pulled Captain Zacharias aside and talked to him privately. She’d gone searching for Eren while the captains went off to find the two men who had entered the compound under false circumstances, desperate to make sure that her brother was all right. Yet she hadn’t found him on the roof, or in the basement training room, or even in the short bastard’s quarters. What she had found was his blood and his limbs in that awful room, once the fighting had moved outside.

She was going to get Eren back, rip Ymir’s head from her filthy neck, gather up Armin and then leave this damn dome – it was nothing but bad luck for them, had brought them too much negative attention. She’d take Eren someplace safe, somewhere they could hide for a few decades, and maybe they’d try their plan again, get Armin in a good university and go for Grisha’s files in another century. But first, she’d kill everyone standing between her and her brother.

Spotting Ymir halfway across the courtyard, Mikasa began to run toward her, casually slashing her claws through a Malform along the way, when something landed in front of her. Red eyes flashed for a moment and then Annie was barreling toward her, head lowered as if to ram into her.

Mikasa snarled and ran to meet her head on, arms out to latch onto the vampire. “I’ll kill you, too!” She managed to get her arms beneath Annie’s and lifted the smaller girl up to throw her sideways.

Annie twisted in the air to land in a crouch. “You’re not good enough to do that.”

Mikasa bared her teeth in answer and lashed out with her claws, only to be blocked by Annie’s left arm. The vampire tried to punch her in the ribs, but Mikasa was prepared and got her knee up in time, and extended it in a kick that sent Annie flying backwards. Annie hissed in anger over the blow, but immediately charged forward, leaping into the air to deliver a kick of her own that Mikasa barely dodged.

Part of Mikasa knew that the longer she fought Annie that the farther away Eren was taken, but she also knew that Annie wouldn’t allow her to go after her brother – it was deal with Annie now or else. She lashed out at the vampire’s head… and missed the punch that knocked her back a good eight feet or so.

Before she could get back on her feet, someone raced forward with their blades in hand at Annie. Mikasa recognized Petra as she took on the vampire, blades in constant motion as she actually got Annie to give up a few feet, a look of furious concentration on her face the entire time, but the human just wasn’t good enough to face the vampire, especially on the ground. Before Mikasa could rush in to save her, Annie ducked below the blades and slashed with her claws, cutting deeply into Petra’s throat.

“No!”

Annie grinned at Mikasa’s despair and rage while she grasped Petra’s head and gave it a savage twist. “I don’t think you’re going to be saving her this time.” She let the woman’s body fall to the ground and then charged at Mikasa, her hands gleaming with blood. “You know, we did try to do this quietly – if they’d gotten out quickly enough, there wouldn’t have been a need for all this violence.”

Furious over Petra’s death, Mikasa ducked beneath the wild swing and punched Annie in the side. “You’re lying.”

“Well, we did have to do something to pull your friends’ teeth.” Annie winced a little as she danced back a couple of feet. “He’ll be doing what he’s meant to do – let him go, Mikasa.”

“*Never*. He’s not supposed to be a monster like you,” Mikasa spat as she slashed her claws along Annie’s chest.

Something akin to fury caused Annie’s face to tighten, and she once again caught Mikasa with a powerful kick that this time knocked the wind out of her and sent her falling down onto one knee. She followed that up with another kick to Mikasa’s chin before lashing out with her claws.

“We’re all monsters here,” Annie snarled. “You just refuse to see it.” Then she turned to run toward the direction that Mikasa had last seen Ymir headed in.

Doing her best to stand, Mikasa forced her unresponsive body to follow – had something broken? No matter, it would heal. She staggered after Annie, who was slashing at Malform and Corps fighters alike in an effort to clear a path… until she came across someone with chin-length blond hair.

“Out of my way, Arlert!”

Mikasa’s heart stuttered in her chest when she realized who was blocking Annie’s path – she put on a burst of speed in a desperate hope that she could get there in time, not about to lose another person she loved to the bitch.

Armin stood his ground, his uniform splattered with Malform blood and his right blade drawn but not held up against Annie. “I told you, you don’t have to do this! It’s not too late!”

For some reason Annie didn’t tear into Armin, didn’t rip out his throat and push him aside while Mikasa looked on helplessly – she just held up her claws in a threatening manner. “It’s already done, so go away!”

“No, I think-“

Mikasa worked up enough speed and energy that she could tackle Annie from behind, while the bitch was distracted by Armin. She didn’t know what was going on between the two of them, but far be it for her to pass up on the opportunity.

“Mikasa, no! Let me talk to her!”

Right, not happening. Mikasa straddle Annie and began to punch her, putting all of her returning strength into the blows. The vampire struggled beneath her at first and then gradually went still, steam rising from her body as it tried to heal the damage.

“Mikasa! Please, stop it!” Armin grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to pull her away, which distracted her enough to allow Annie, who wasn’t quite out of it yet, to knock her off. The vampire struggled to her felt and staggered away while Mikasa did her best to shake off Armin without hurting him, eventually reaching the wall of the building.

Mikasa didn’t know what the bitch intended to do – if she was looking for a place to hide until she healed or if she was going to leap onto something else – but she wasn’t giving Annie any more chances, not while Eren was getting farther away with every second. She leapt after Annie and landed above her, then used her claws to slash at the vampire’s hands until Annie lost her grip and fell onto the ground.

Landing on her feet near her, Mikasa approached with caution in case Annie wasn’t as wounded as she appeared; smoke rose from her body as it tried to heal, her eyes glazed with pain and blood pouring from her mouth. Several other members of the Corps surrounded the vampire as well, their blades drawn and ready, including Captain Hange.

“My brother – where are they taking him,” Mikasa demanded to know as she drew her own blade. “*Tell* me and I’ll make it quick.”

Annie smiled up at her, the expression crooked and too amused for the situation. She lifted her left hand, the one that bore the ring with the amber stone the color of Eren’s eyes. “N…nice… try.” She pressed one of her bloody claws against it and closed her eyes.

At first Mikasa didn’t notice anything, and then she realized that the normally white steam surrounding the healing vampire was turning golden in color and becoming thicker, more concentrated around Annie’s body. “What’s happening?”

“This is amazing!” Captain Hange reached out to touch the steam and let out a yelp. “It’s incredibly hot!” As they watched, it condensed around Annie’s body and became solid, like a crystal.

“No!” Mikasa brought her blade down on the golden crystal, desperate to stop it from forming, from protecting Annie, and all that happened was that her blade shattered upon contact. “Dammit, no!” She *needed* Annie, needed answers from her, so how could she hide away now?

“Let me see!” Armin pushed his way through the gathered crowd to stand between Mikasa and Captain Hange. “How… did she do this?”

“Yes, it was really fascinating! Some sort of chemical reaction based on a stone she was wearing, apparently.” The captain leaned forward to examine the crystal a bit more cautiously this time, touching it with confidence when it didn’t seem to burn her again. “I’ll need to take it inside and run some scans to see if she’s still alive, but I don’t see the purpose of it otherwise. They say that vampires could hibernate-“

“I don’t care!” Mikasa struggled to control her emotions while surrounded by so many humans and realized that she must have lost her scarf at some point during the fight with Annie. She gasped and clutched at the spot where it normally hung… and felt tears well up in her eyes when Armin handed the length of red wool over to her. “We need to know where Eren is!”

He gave her a reassuring hug. “We’ll find him, I promise. There can’t be too many places where they’re taking him.”

“Him and Ymir both – she has to pay for what she did today.” Mikasa’s hands tightened around the scarf before she wrapped it around her neck, oddly centered now that she had a piece of Eren back again.

“Don’t blame Ymir until you know the truth.” Mikasa looked up to find a furious-looking Krista standing across from Annie’s… ‘cocoon’. “She wasn’t fighting today like she could have, and one of the guys threatened me. I don’t think she did this willingly.”

“She still did it,” Mikasa shot back, refusing to hear anyone defend the betraying bitch. “Eren wouldn’t-“

“It’s not always about Eren,” Krista shouted. “The world doesn’t revolve around him!”

It did for Mikasa. She glared at the hysterical girl but before she could say anything else, several more people approached the growing crowd – including someone whom Mikasa didn’t expect to see anywhere near here today. “Jean?”

“Mikasa! You’re all right!” His uniform was torn on the left sleeve and splattered with Malform blood, but he otherwise looked fine. “We’ve been helping to drive off the Malforms and I got worried when I didn’t see you.” He hurried forward and then stopped about a foot or two away, the smile on his face slipping away.

Mikasa realized that her own uniform was covered with slash marks, most of them from Annie but a couple from Ymir and a Malform or two, and blood from wounds that were long healed. She also still had her claws out even though her eyes had returned to normal. Lifting her chin, she stared back at Jean as if daring him to say anything.

He forced a swallow, the sound loud in the sudden quiet, and managed a weak chuckle. “So… you, too? Is that why you report to Captain Ackerman? You got the glowing eyes and claws?”

“Yes, among other things.” She sheathed her remaining blade and shrugged, doing her best to not show how affected she was at the moment by his possible rejection. “It’s useful for hunting down vampires and Malform.”

“I… I see.” He looked a bit pale for a few seconds and then he smiled, the expression a little shaky but genuine. “You’re still not the weirdest girlfriend I’ve ever dated.”

There was the sound of a deep voice being cleared and a broad figure pushed forward. “This is all very touching, but I think we’ve more important matters right now.” Commander Smith looked down at Annie and frowned. “This is one of the vampires, yes?”

“Yep. Seems she decided to encase herself in some sort of organic crystal rather than allow herself to be captured and interrogated. Rather clever!” Captain Hange poked at the crystal again and grinned. “It’s going to be fun to-“

“Casualty reports?”

The captain lost her smile. “Still incoming, but it’s not good.” She gave the commander a sober look. “We’re probably down half again in numbers – those closest to headquarters came back to help fight or to deal with the Malforms spreading out, and those still out on patrol are trying to deal with them on their own. It’s not pretty. We’re going to have to call for emergency recruiting to get through the rest of this cycle.”

“That’s if we’re not all arrested by the day’s end.” The commander folded his arms over his large chest and shook his head. “We were warned by our young friends here that Minister Zackly has issued a warrant for my and Levi’s arrest. I imagine that they’ve already taken Commander Pixis into custody, unless the current crisis of Malforms in the dome has made them reconsider that for the time being. Once they feel this area is under control, they’ll probably send the MPs here to drag us out by force.” Oddly enough, he didn’t sound too concerned about that fact.

Captain Zacharias made a chopping motion with his right hand. “If they take you, especially after today, then they’re leaving this dome defenseless – the MPs are useless against the Malforms and the Engineers can only do so much.” Jean and his fellow MPs looked as if they wanted to take offense at that analysis… but considering that it had been the Freedom Corps that bled today, there wasn’t much that could be said.

“It doesn’t matter if the dome has any defenses or not if they have Eren,” Commander Smith explained. “Right now, the enemy has exactly what they want, and we’re not doing much to stop them.”

Mikasa tugged her scarf over her mouth as she scowled at the commander. “Because Annie did *this* before we could stop her, and Ymir and the others got away with Eren!”

“We ran across Ymir and the remaining trio on our way here – Levi and two Engineers stayed behind to retrieve Eren.” Judging from the bleak expression on the commander’s face, he didn’t seem hopeful for their odds.

She pushed forward, almost leaping over Annie’s prone form. “Why didn’t all of you stop them? Three people aren’t going to be enough!”

“Because I’ve a duty to *my* people,” the commander informed her with a cold voice and a harsh expression.

She pushed aside Jean’s hand on her arm and glared at the man, uncaring that her eyes had begun to glow. “Where was this? I’ll go and-“

“It won’t do any good – they’re already gone.” Captain Ackerman came forward, the front of his uniform torn and stained with blood and the dark circles under his eyes even more prominent than usual, with a strange woman in a filthy Engineers uniform at his side. “Bastards had some special shit that they shot at me that apparently can drop vampire hybrids. I’m guessing that’s how they took down Eren.”

Captain Hange made a squeaking sound and waved about her hands. “Did you manage to get a sample of it?”

The short bastard gave her a scathing look. “Yeah, sure, I bent down to pick it up in-between getting my ass shot to pieces, you Shitty Glasses.” He clicked his tongue while pushing his bangs out of his eyes. “What I *did*- well, we managed to find out where they’re taking him – Ymir left a message that they’re headed out of the dome. I’m back here long enough to change and then somebody better tell me where the fuck the nearest tunnel is or else.” He stared pointedly at Mikasa and Armin.

Normally she’d let him hang for his arrogance, but for once they wanted the same thing. “I’ll do better than tell you, I’ll show you.” Mikasa stepped around Annie to approach the man.

“Wait, you *know* where the tunnels are?” The Engineer stood there in evident shock as she stared at Mikasa.

Armin rushed over to join them, his hands held up to stop them. “No! Look, not that I doubt what Ymir said, but it’s obviously a trap!” He shook his head when Krista started to protest. “Not on Ymir’s part, but on the others! If you go into them, you know they’ll be full of Malform and maybe even rigged against you as well! They’ll expect you to follow and they’ll do their best to protect against that.”

As much as Mikasa wanted to argue with him, he was right; they would lose so much time fighting their way through whatever Annie and the others had set up against them that it wouldn’t do Eren any good. “Then what are we going to do?”

“Break the damn seal,” Captain Ackerman muttered in a tone that said he was clearly dealing with idiots.

“No!” The blonde Engineer rushed forward with a murderous look on her face. “You can’t force it… but it can be opened if done properly.” She glanced back and forth between the captain and Mikasa. “If you give me the information on the tunnels, I can have the nearest gate opened for you.”

Commander Smith straightened up and gave the woman an assessing look. “You can do that?”

She glanced downward for a moment before meeting his gaze. “I can… if I go through the gate with them.”

“Why would you do that?” She didn’t know Eren, so why would she risk going outside?

The woman turned to look at Mikasa, her expression serious. “Because we need to know about those tunnels before more Malforms come up from them and kill innocent people. Because those vampires killed some very good people today – people who gave their lives fighting to save others. Because I’m tired of the senseless deaths and sacrifices, and it seems as if you’re striving towards something, which is better than us just doing the same damn thing day after day and never making it any better.”

Everyone was quiet for several seconds, until Captain Ackerman clicked his tongue a couple of times. “Works for me. So that’s three of us for the outside.”

“Oh, I’m going!” Captain Hange bounced about on her toes and waved both arms about. “There’s no way you’re going outside without me!”

“I’m going as well!” Krista shoved her way forward and stood in front of Captain Ackerman with her fists planted on her hips and a hint of gold in her blue eyes. “Don’t even *think* to leave me behind!”

He gave both of them a bland look for a moment and then turned away, seeming unsurprised by their volunteering. “Blouse, we need a tracker. You interested?”

Sasha jumped upon hearing her name and oddly enough smiled. “Yes, Sir!” She didn’t question him about going outside, just continued to smile as if pleased to have been asked to join in. Mikasa wondered if she’d received a concussion during the fight….

Beside her, Connie gasped. “You’re not going anywhere without me! Sir, I’m going, too!” Sasha’s smile grew even wider.

“Wait a second, you’re going *outside*,” the unknown MP shrieked. “That’s impossible! Why are you people even volunteering for this? You’ll be killed by radiation soon after you leave the dome!”

Captain Ackerman looked annoyed at the interruption and clicked his tongue again as he shrugged off his ruined jacket. “Because everything you know about the radiation levels and the outside is a fucking lie, and we don’t have the time to get into this shit right now. So shut up and don’t waste our time.” That seemed to silence everyone around them up.

Jean bit into his lower lip as he stared at his partner and then looked at Mikasa. He appeared torn for a moment and then stepped forward. “Uhm, I’d like to volunteer, too.” When the captain eventually nodded, he let out a breath and smiled when Mikasa nodded as well, a faint blush spreading across her face over the fact that he was going with her. She didn’t know why they were helping her – helping Eren – but she wouldn’t turn them down.

The other MP straightened up until his back was perfectly rigid. “Sir! Then please accept me as well, sir!”

“Sheesh, why am I stuck with a bunch of baby MPs,” Captain Ackerman bitched before nodding again.

“Take what you can get, because I’m afraid we can’t spare the manpower,” Commander Smith warned. “Sorry.”

“Yeah, yeah.” The short bastard rubbed the back of his neck as he headed toward the building, his jacket slung over his shoulder. “Be back here in twenty minutes or I’m leaving without you. Stieger – see to outfitting Rico, okay? Blouse, you deal with the MPs. Just enough until we get outside, where we’ll have our wilderness supplies waiting at the station.”

Captain Hange hurried after him, and Mikasa thought she heard mention of Petra as they left. Mikasa nodded at the Engineer – Rico – and motioned that she’d be one minute. “Armin?” She was surprised that he hadn’t volunteered.

He approached her and gave her a hug. “Look, be careful, all right.” As he stepped back, he managed a wistful smile. “I think… I think it might be a good idea for me to remain here. That way you can focus on Eren and I can help out the Corps, especially if Captain Hange is going with you.” He glanced at Commander Smith. “They could use it, from the sound of things.”

Relief washed through her – the others had already taken Eren from her and it would be dangerous chasing after Reiner and Bertolt. “Be safe yourself. We’ll be back for you.”

“I know you will.” His smile strengthened as he gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Now hurry, I don’t think Captain Ackerman was lying about the twenty minutes.”

Neither did she. Pulling away with some reluctance, she waved at Rico to follow her and then ran toward the building so they could quickly change into some clean clothes before leaving the dome.

*******

Ymir’s steps faltered when they headed into the narrow alley that held one of the secret entrances to the tunnels. Reiner and Bertolt went about halfway into the dead-end street before they stopped and looked at the human in their group. “This is where we part, Ackerman. Make sure that no one follows us.”

Hearing the familiar surname startled Ymir, as did seeing Mr. Creepy nod upon receiving his new orders. “Yes, sir.” He tipped his hat at Reiner before falling back, blending into the shadows at the alley’s entrance with ease due to his black coat and slim build. Ymir stared after him for a few seconds and wondered if he had any connection to the short asshole – wasn’t it odd to keep hearing that name crop up lately?

“So, here’s your last chance to do what you do so well and run away,” Reiner taunted he as he set about revealing the hidden entrance to the tunnel, while Bertolt stood a careful watch nearby. The tall, nervous vampire clutched at the straps that held the metal box containing Eren against his back as if they were lifelines, which just might be the case – Ymir had to wonder what would happen if they made it out of here without him.

“Ha ha, you asshole.” She glared at the two of them while making a show of cleaning beneath her claws. “It’s not like I’ve anything left for me back at that base anymore.” No, nothing except Krista, whom despite everything hadn’t wanted her to go.

Reiner grunted while he finished entering the code that made the ancient looking panel slide free. “Figures that you’re only here because you’re out of options.” He stood up and motioned for Bertolt to enter first, and then waited for Ymir to approach. When she was within arm’s reach, he grabbed her by the neck, his claws pricking at her skin. “You listen to me – I’m going to keep a close watch over you, okay? If you’re really here to help us then that’s great because we can use it. It’s about time that you finally realize that you should be helping your own kind, especially since you’re partially responsible for this damn mess we’re in. But you even think of betraying us?” He bared his teeth at her. “I will tear out your heart and leave the rest of you to the Mutates to finish off, you understand?”

“Puh-perfectly,” she managed to spit out while doing her best not to rip out his stomach through his navel. He studied her for a few seconds before grunting once and letting go.

“Good.” Reiner motioned her to precede him into the tunnel, and once they were both inside, set about locking it behind him. It was damn dark inside, almost too dark to see with their enhanced night vision, but they couldn’t risk a light source so close to an exit. Besides Reiner and Bertolt, she could smell… shit, she could smell a *lot* of Malform.

Stumbling forward, she moved toward the sound of bodies shifting about and claws scratching against stone, and was almost prepared for the sight of a multitude of red eyes glowing in the darkness. “How the *fuck* can you still have so many?” There’s been all those attacks and today’s massacre… how could there still be so many left in the dome?

Reiner urged her to go past the creatures. “Where do you think most of the dead from Utgard and Ragako went? It took a bit of effort for our friends to shift them here, but it was worth the effort.”

So not only did they use the domes as a means to cut off Eren and Mikasa, but they also used the humans as… as ‘fuel’ for their own private army. Ymir closed her eyes at the thought of all those deaths, all that destruction just to get a hold of Eren…. “How have you been feeding them? You can’t tell me that they’ve been starving this entire time?” The Malform around her seemed a little too biddable for that.

“We didn’t kill everyone from the domes right away – some have been kept alive for that purpose.” There was enough light now that she could make out Reiner and Bertolt’s outlines, and Reiner shrugged as he talked, acting as if none of this mattered too much to him. All the while, the Malform trailed along them as if lost little puppies. “We tried to limit hunting in Trost to the three of us or if one of the Mutates got out of hand.”

For centuries Ymir hadn’t cared about the fact that she was hunting humans, that she was leaving behind bodies that would turn into bloodthirsty, undead freaks. For too long, she’d been lost in… lost in a type of fugue where nothing had mattered. Maybe it had been seeing how far civilization could fall and then how it struggled to recover that had finally shaken some sense back into her that she’d finally stopped killing her victims, that she made sure that none of her ‘mistakes’ turned. Whatever the reason, it had been a long time since she was as ruthlessly uncaring about humans as Reiner was just then – yet somehow, he had managed to convince Eren that he was a decent guy.

“You really don’t care how many humans you kill, do you?”

It was Bertolt who spoke this time, his attention focused on Reiner while he hitched the metal box higher up on his back. “Th-they don’t care if they kill us, do they? For centuries they hunted us down, drove us into hiding and called us monsters. We only survived by pretending not to exist. So why shouldn’t we hunt them? They hunt everything else.”

Ah, the old ‘humans are trash so what does it matter if we kill them’ excuse. Ymir rubbed at her forehead and didn’t bother arguing anymore, not when she was stuck in a tunnel underground with two guys who had clearly drunk the kool-aid and a bunch of Malform. “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before,” she sighed. “Have fun explaining it to Eren – you know, the poor guy whose limbs you had cut off.”

“He’ll see that we’re right, eventually. He’s spent too long among the humans, he just needs to be with his own kind.” Reiner reached over to rest a protective hand on top of the box. “He’s already learning a bit, with the years of isolation and now finally turning people. He just needs to learn to trust us again.”

Yeah, good luck with that one – Eren thought the only good Malform was a dead one, and he’d made the exception about vampires only for Ymir… and look where that had gotten him. Something told her him waking up drugged and down three out of four limbs wasn’t going to put him in the most receptive of moods, but she’d let these two find things out the hard way.

She just had to hope that she hadn’t hit that Engineer too hard and that she’d passed the message on to Captain Ackerman, or else she’d be stuck with watching these two – and Annie, whenever the bitch decided to join up again – do their best to brainwash Eren into betraying everything he believed in.

*******

His hair still damp from the shower, Levi raced about his quarters to get ready in time, his shirt half-undone as he tossed various items into a pair of saddlebags. There was no telling when he’d come across some decent tea, so he packed as much as he could, along with a personal datapad and solar charger, his toiletries kit, a flask of gin, spare wire, and some bars of decent biodegradable soap because the shit they stocked at the Corps’ storage stations was horrid. One or two more odds and ends aside, he finished packing and then hurried to get dressed, his grey half-cloak barely settled over his shoulders by the time he was out the door.

Krista was already waiting for him out in the courtyard; she must have ran to get her stuff and had two sets of saddlebags draped over her shoulders; Levi’s eyes narrowed at that and he debated to ask her if she just packed heavy or if she planned on burying Ymir’s shit with the traitor’s ashes – did vampires turn into a puddle of goo like their Malform offspring? However, the sight of Erwin with Armin at his side striding toward Levi distracted him from taunting the girl.

“You’re ready to leave?”

“In about four minutes.” Levi shifted the bag draped over his right shoulder a little higher so he could give Erwin a half-assed salute; the man deserved that much for the shit he was going to put up with after they left. “You going to be all right? Sure you don’t want to come with us?”

A weary smile broke out over Erwin’s face. “As much as I enjoy being out in the wilderness, I have to say ‘no’.” Resolve hardened his features, brought out that familiar steeliness to his blue eyes that told Levi that their enemies were about to get their asses handed to them – he almost wished he could stay to see it happen. “I’ve a few matters that I need to attend to here first.” Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, they all turned to see Mikasa, Rico, Blouse and the baby MPs running toward them.

“Are we on time?” Blouse skidded to a halt a few feet away, the saddlebags in her hands nearly bursting at the seams it was so badly overpacked; Levi swore he could smell at least five different types of food aromas wafting from inside of it.

“Barely.” Levi bared his teeth at the idiots. “You ready?”

Mikasa held up the extra bags she’d brought along. “I prepared something for Eren since….” She frowned and tugged up the red scarf.

For once Levi let the mother-henning slide, since it wasn’t like Eren had prepared for his sudden exit. “I hope you asswipes used your heads when you packed – there’s storage stations scattered about where we can restock on clothes and other necessities while we’re outside. That’s why I told you to pack light.”

“But they don’t carry all of my equipment there!” Hange finally came out to join them, arms full of various packs. “It was so hard to decide….”

“It’s a fucking rescue mission, not a chance for you to work on your experiments,” Levi reminded her, his voice a rough growl. “Now come on, we need to go.”

“One moment, please.” Erwin stepped closer to the horse-faced MP who was hovering around Mikasa. “If you don’t mind, I need to ask a favor before you leave.”

The MP looked surprised just then but nodded. “Yeah, sure, what is it?”

Erwin smiled, that damn smile that always had Levi patting down his clothes afterwards because you knew something was getting stolen right before your eyes. “I need your access codes to the MP database.”

The short MP spoke up first while his taller colleagues frowned, clearly confused and a bit upset about the request. “What good is that going to do you? They’re gonna revoke them as soon as they figure out what we did.”

Armin hurried over to stand beside Erwin, a datapad clutched against his chest. “Yes, but it’ll take some time before they do that, right? Especially with everything that happened today. I just need them for a short amount of time.” He gave the guys a bright smile, his blue eyes opened wide and practically shining – Levi bit back on a snort when he recognized from whom the kid must have learned that particular look. “It’ll really help us out.”

The partnered up MPs shared a look as if they were trying to figure out what to do, while the dark- haired MP studied Armin for a few seconds before giving in with a sigh. “All right, it’s not like we can get into any more trouble now, can we?” He held out his hand for the datapad, which Armin was very eager to hand over.

“We might as well,” Horse-face muttered and took the device next once his colleague was done. The shaved bald kid was last and handed it back to Armin with a flourish.

“This part of your grand scheme,” Levi asked Erwin as they walked toward the gate.

“It’s part of it.” Erwin paused to clasp him on the shoulder by way of ‘goodbye’. “I’ve called Nile to tell him to come here – I refuse to be arrested by anyone less than a person of equal rank. When he does show up, I hope to have some good arguments lined up for why him going through with his orders would be a huge mistake.”

“Good luck with that.” Levi honestly meant it; if anyone could give some corrupt ministers and their lapdog MPs a good showing, it was Erwin.

“And the same to you, my friend.” Erwin turned some so he could give Hange a hug, while Mikasa embraced Armin. “Safe travels to you all.”

Feeling that this had dragged on long enough, Levi gestured for everyone to get their asses through the gate. He pulled up the hood of his cloak to cover his head and mask his features, something that everyone did so that they would just be anonymous members of the Corps.

“It’ll just take us a few minutes to get to the nearest seal.” Rico took the lead, which Levi allowed since she both knew the city the best and wasn’t wanted by the MPs. “Now, are you *certain* that we’ll be fine once we get outside?”

He looked over at Mikasa, who was walking a couple of feet to his left. She noticed his gaze and nodded. “We should be just past the worst of the solar radiation – if anything, we might have to seek some shelter for an hour or two during the day, but that’s it.”

“You guys are serious about this, aren’t you?” The dark haired MP just shook his head as he scrambled to keep up with them. “I don’t see how this is possible.”

“Because people are too happy to believe what others tell them,” Levi snapped. “Now shut up about it before my foot gets so far shoved up your ass that you’ll stop worrying about frying out in the sun.”

“There’s the great diplomat of the Corps,” Hange cheered as she fell in step beside him. “You going to give us a rousing speech to raise our spirits next?”

“Fuck off.”

“Yep, that would about do it.” She flashed him a grin before adjusting one of the bags that began to slide down her left shoulder. “I’ll start calling your ‘Erwin Jr.’”

If it wouldn’t slow them down, he would take the time to throttle her – unfortunately, he settled for giving her as virulent a glare as possible before the sound of wires being fired caused all of them to pause and dart into the nearest shadows. Hidden from view by a doorway, Levi peered upward and saw shapes dressed in black and green fly overhead. “Looks like the MPs finally got their asses in gear.” He thought he recognized Nile Dok among them.

“Yes, so it’s a good thing we’re almost at the seal.” Rico twisted about to watch the MP’s progress and waited just a few seconds after they were gone to motion them to move forward. “Come on, I don’t want to risk them coming back once they reach the base and find you gone.”

“Fine with me.” Levi shoved Hange forward and wished that they could use their wires, but it would draw too much attention if they did so they were stuck with using their feet for now. Fortunately for them, Rico wasn’t exaggerating when she said that they that they were close to the seal.

The squat building looked much like the rest of the ones inside the dome, except that it didn’t have any windows and that the door was made with reinforced steel and required a retinal scan and a code to open. Rico provided both and ushered everyone inside before she closed it behind her, left hand on her weapon the entire time.

“Rico? Who the hell are these people? And why are you dressed like that?” A tall young man with close cropped reddish hair stood with his hands on his blades and a confused look on his face inside the building, in a large room that held a few supplies such as cloaks and solar suits.

“It’s too long of a story to explain in the short amount of time we have.” Rico nodded to Levi and Hange. “Jared, these are Captains Ackerman and Hange from the Freedom Corps, and while this is going to sound crazy, they’re leading an expedition outside.”

The look on the Engineer’s face was almost comical just then, except they didn’t have the time to humor idiots. “But… but they can’t go outside! It’s months too soon and they don’t even have suits!”

Levi’s hands twitched to grab hold of the idiot and force him to open the damn gate, but Rico beat him to it – she slapped her hand down on the man’s shoulder and gave him a shake. “I know it’s early, but they’re going outside and I’m going with them. Just open the seal to let us slip through – I’ll take full responsibility.”

“But you’ll burn up out there!”

“It’s our choice! Just let us through!” A dangerous gleam shone in Rico’s grey eyes and her lips pulled back from her teeth the slightest bit, causing Jared to flinch.

“But… but… what if there’re Malforms out there? We can’t let them in!”

She gave him another quick shake. “We’ll handle them. All you have to do is break the seal and open the gate for a minute, just long enough for us to slip outside and then close it.”

He stared at her for several seconds and let out a nervous breath, his freckled face suddenly gone ashen. “All right, but I’m telling the commander that you pulled rank on me!”

“That’s fine. Once we’re through the gate, I need you to run an errand for me and to give something *only* to either Commander Pixis or Anka.” Rico pulled out a datapad and handed it to the man. “It’s very important, so promise me you’ll do it and only give it to one of them.” She stared intently at him until he did so. “It’s pass-locked with my pay account number, which they’ll be able to look it up to access the information. Now come on and let us through.” She gave him a gentle shove toward the door on the other side of the room. “Hurry up, we’re on an important mission.”

“You want to get fried that quickly, fine,” Jared mumbled as he tucked away the device then punched the code to open the other door, revealing a larger room with one wall lined with monitors and computers where a young woman with long blonde hair sat and another wall was basically a huge metal door.

“Jared?”

“It’s okay, Sharel. Rico’s here to take some people through the gate.” When the young woman gaped at him in shock, he went over to join her at the row of computers and began to start typing. “You’ll have thirty seconds to get through the gate and then I’m closing it again.”

“But-“

He cut off the blonde by reaching past her to flick a switch. “It’s going to open in fifteen seconds.”

“Thanks, Jared.” Rico waved them all in front of the door, causing Blouse and the short MP to nearly trip over each other in their rush to stop oogling the instruments and get into place. Hange was actually bouncing on her toes in her eagerness to go outside, while Levi wondered if it was possible to leave all of these idiots behind.

Right on time, the heavy metal door slide open to reveal packed dirt and blue skies. Levi froze for a second, his body still except to breathe in fresh air, and then he jerked forward, rushing through the opening before the gate closed again. Beside him, Hange was whooping like an idiot, the noise echoed by Blouse and her boyfriend, while the other two MPs chanted what sounded like prayers or something as they stepped outside. A few seconds later, the gate slammed shut behind them.

He kept moving until they were at least fifty feet away from the dome, where the dirt began to give way to grass. The sunlight… the sunlight felt *amazing* on his skin, the air was so crisp and fresh that he couldn’t stop taking deep breaths, and had there always been so many sounds out here? Chirps and rustling and hums that all blended together to a faint symphony of living things-

“Oh *fuck*, I’m not burning. I can’t believe that I’m not *burning*!”

“This is *amazing*! I’ve never been outside before! Shuttles don’t count! It’s so *bright!”

“Are those trees? How the hell did they get so *big*?”

“What do you think we can eat?”

Hange chuckled as she waved a hand at the baby MPs, who were standing around gawking at everything around them. “Isn’t it always fun when the newbies take their first sight of everything?” Meanwhile, Rico and Krista were a lot quieter, their eyes wide as they gazed around at everything.

“It’s fucking hilarious, but we don’t have the time. Oi! Be one with nature *later*, right now we have to get our asses over to the storage station before it gets dark.”

Mikasa gave Blouse’s arm a warning squeeze while in passing. “Don’t eat anything before checking with me – a lot of things are poisonous, okay?”

“Wah! That’s so not fair! I’ve been out here before… well, with my dad.”

Mikasa ignored Blouse’s whining and strode toward Levi, with Rico on her heels. “I think we’ve a couple of hours of daylight left – time out here doesn’t quite match up to what’s in the dome.”

“Isn’t that fucking great.” Levi looked above to orient himself and then headed off in the right direction. “It’ll probably take us about an hour to get to the station, which is northeast from here, and maybe half an hour to stock up and prep the horses. How far behind those assholes will it put us?”

Mikasa buried her face in that damn red scarf and appeared to think things over for about a minute. “Rico said that you fought them by Garners Street, which means that they were most likely headed for a tunnel entrance not too far away. They can’t come out too early and risk being trapped by sunlight, so I’ll chance that they’re going to follow the path that’ll take them out by the southern side of the dome. That way they can cover the most ground while hidden and protected from the sun.”

Shit, so not only did they lose some time getting the supplies, but they’d have to go around the dome to eventually meet up with where they came out of the tunnels, and *then* hope to start to track them down. “That’s going to put us hours behind.” He wanted to break something just then, wanted to break something in the worst way. Not only had Eren been snatched away when he wasn’t there, now he was failing to get the brat back as quickly as possible.

Mikasa closed her eyes and shuddered for a moment. “Yes, but they’ll have to stop during daylight and I doubt they’ll have horses.” When she opened her eyes again, they were golden. “We’ll catch up.”

“We fucking better.” Because the longer this hunt dragged out, the more pissed off Levi was becoming – and he was plenty pissed off as it was.

“So how do you know so much about the outside and everything,” the dark haired MP asked Mikasa as he stumbled forward, seeming to have difficulty walking on the uneven terrain. “How did you know that we wouldn’t be burned by the radiation when we came outside?”

“Yeah.” Horse-Face came up on Mikasa’s other side and nearly pressed against her while giving the other MP a warning look as if to say ‘back off’. “And about the poisonous stuff, too. Is that like special Wi- uhm, Corps training?”

Levi continued walking on since he figured that Mikasa could handle this mess herself, while Hange took to chuckling softly. Mikasa tugged up the scarf until half of her face was practically covered by the soft material and shook her head.

“No, it’s because Eren and I have lived outside of the domes for a good part of our lives.”

Horse-Face nearly tripped over his own feet when he heard that. “How- how is that possible?”

“We’ve more important things to focus on right now, like rescuing my brother,” Mikasa told him, her eyes flashing gold as a rare hint of temper entered her voice. “All you have to know is that you need to listen to me as well as the two captains if you want to survive out here.”

“Ah, she dodged that bullet,” Hange murmured sotto voice.

Levi grunted in agreement while he turned to glare over his shoulders at the idiots. “She’s right, you asswipes-“

“We have *names*, you know.” Horse-Face jerked his hand toward his chest and then at his colleagues in quick succession. “I’m Jean, he’s Connie and that’s Marlo. I think if we’re out here risking our necks for one of your own, you can at least call us by our names.”

The baby MP had a point, but Levi wasn’t about to concede to him right now or else it would give the morons bad ideas. “As I was saying, *asswipe*, you’ll listen to what she said. The wild isn’t anything like the dome or those stupid-ass movies make it out to be – there’s a million things out here that can kill you if you’re not paying attention and half a million that can even if you do. Blouse, put anything in your mouth that’s not cleared by Stieger and I will *cut* that fucking limb off for you, do you understand?” He glared at the fucking idiot who was eyeing up a bush with light blue berries.

“But they look just like the blueberries that I eat all the time. Well, almost.” He swore there was drool dripping from the corner of her mouth. Gross.

“Those will have you spitting up your guts until you’re hacking up blood, but yeah, go ahead, have fun with them.” Levi clicked his tongue in disgust and looked away, back onto the way ahead. He noticed that Krista was walking a little bit apart from everyone, her expression withdrawn and her arms secure around the bags that she carried.

There was a bit of noise from behind as the short MP – Connie – reassured Blouse that there would be something safe to eat soon, and Jean tried to chat up a plainly uncommunicative Mikasa. Levi gritted his teeth together and put a little more distance between himself and the idiots, with Hange and Rico flanking him on either side.

“Well, all that chatter should keep most of the wildlife away for now – at least until dark. We better have some horses and supplies by then or else we’ll have problems dealing with the cats.” Hange actually sounded rather chipper about the prospect of being shredded apart by six foot long felines. “Unless the Malforms get us first.”

Rico gave the lunatic a perturbed look, while Levi ignored her with ease. “Is she always like this?”

“What, mentally disturbed? Hell, yes.”

“Wonderful.” Rico continued to eye Hange for a few more seconds, during with Hange merely smiled back, before focusing her attention on Levi. “So, I find it very interesting that we’re traveling with the sister of the kid we’re trying to rescue, who just so happens to have plans to the tunnels of not only the Trost dome but most of the domes in this area as well. Oh, and she also has experience with living in the wilderness as well.” When neither Levi nor Hange said anything, Rico sighed and adjusted her glasses. “Yeah, I’m beginning to see why someone would want to kidnap her brother.”

More than likely, the truth about Eren and Mikasa was going to come out during the rescue mission, but Levi would do his best to keep the remaining secrets while he could; Eren had trusted him with them, and he’d already let the brat down enough.

Not in the mood to dwell on his failures just then, Levi checked the position of the sun along with that of the bit of the dome’s structure in the distance to see where they were and judged that they were making good time; for the most part, everyone was still fresh and determined. That wouldn’t last long, as traveling over ‘rough’ terrain would wear them down, used as they were to the smooth ground of the domes. The temperature outside wasn’t too warm, but it would get colder at night, and much darker than that inside the closed environment. These kids were in for a rude awakening and only Blouse had received any training on how to deal with the sudden change in circumstance.

They skirted around the dome as they headed toward the small, encapsulated building which housed the horses that the Freedom Corps used during the ‘official’ times when it was thought that the outside was safe for exploration. Such storage units had been set up as separate mini-domes for safety reasons, on the off-chance that the Corps returned with any life-threatening diseases and needed to be quarantined, and right now Levi was finding it to be a pain in the ass. How much time would be saved if they could have just taken the horses from headquarters and ridden out of the dome? Then again, how much attention would it have attracted if they’d tried to do just that?

“This better not be a fucking waste of our time,” he muttered while he kicked at a low green bush that he passed along the way.

Hange seemed to read his thoughts since she shrugged and hoisted up one of her bags a little higher. “The station will have all of the supplies that we need – better to lose a little time to get well-stocked than to rush ahead ill-prepared. You should know that after how many missions out here.”

“Yeah.” Still, he wouldn’t rest easy until he had Eren back so the little shit could say ‘told you so’ and those damn vampires were dead. It was as simple as that.

*******

Ymir took another deep breath and savored the fact that she was outside the dome; she always tried to hide from Krista how much she missed being out here where the air was fresh, was *wonderful*, but the truth was that the domes were so *stifling*. If it wasn’t that the hunting was so much easier there….

Between the hours it took them to clear the tunnels and the difference between ‘dome-time’ and ‘wilderness-time’, the sun had finally barely set. Since it was coming to early summer, they wouldn’t have as much time in the dark as she’d like, but it was still I than being stuck in the dome.

Some of the Malform from the tunnels obeyed Reiner’s growled orders and followed them out into the wild. She supposed that he didn’t want to have to track down the roaming Malform that lived outside the domes, surviving off of the native fauna such as the massive herds of feral hogs.

The humans might bitch about the Malform outside of the domes and send out the poor Freedom Corps during early spring to exterminate whatever undead they could find, but nature – with a little help from the vampires – currently had established a decent balance of the Malform wiping out the a good bit of the damn pigs. At least all the ‘pet’ cats had done a decent job of curbing the awful flocks of chickens, even if Ymir missed the variety of small birds that used to exist when she was younger….

So she might be stuck traveling with a pair of assholes – make that a trio when Annie caught up with them – but it should keep the ravaging pigs away for the time being. Everything was a trade-off, she thought to herself as they leapt through the trees, Bertolt hampered a little by the weight of the metal box on his back. After about an hour or two of fleeing from the dome, she finally spoke up. “Anyone going to tell me where we’re going?” She used the sound of her voice to mask the fact that she was deliberately scoring deep marks in the tree.

Reiner was quiet for a minute before he finally looked over his shoulder at her. “We’re headed to somewhere in Switzerland.”

If it was true that that the dome was located around Salzburg, like she suspected, then Switzerland would be southwest and… “Uhm, that’s going to take us some time, yes?” Not that she particularly cared, since the longer it took them to reach their destination, the longer she had to figure out a new plan.

“You in a particular hurry?” When all she did was smile at Reiner, he narrowed his eyes and jumped across a branch of the massive trees that had filled the forest so he could be closer to Bertolt. “We should meet up with some friends along the way.”

That wasn’t exactly what she wanted to hear, but she was careful not to reveal anything other than a carefree smile at the moment. “Great, the more the merrier. I’m sure Eren will be overjoyed to meet them.”

Reiner continued to give her a suspicious look for a few more seconds before he resumed looking ahead. It was quiet after that, all of their attention focused on moving forward as quickly as possible, and she continued to leave whatever signs she could to mark their passage without being obvious about it. They used their enhanced speed, agility and strength to fly through the upper canopy of the forest, avoiding most of the wildlife that way save some birds, squirrels and the smaller of the cat species. As unused to human – or mostly human- lifeforms as they were, the creatures pretty much left them alone.

About an hour before sunrise, Reiner and Bertolt finally slowed down and began to search about. It took them almost half an hour, during which Ymir grew more and more anxious, but they eventually came across a small cave opening.

“Come on, get in here,” Reiner ordered while he ushered Bertolt inside. Fortunately, the Malform huddled outside.

“Yeah, I’m going.” She was pleased to find that the cave opened up to a larger enclosure inside, since she didn’t think she could stand close quarters with the two men for very long. “It’s not a four star hotel, but it’ll do.”

“You can always go stay outside.” Reiner helped Bertolt remove the box from his back and laid it out on the smooth sand-covered floor with care. “We’re not stopping you.”

“No, no, it has its charms.” Ymir glanced around and noticed that there were several wooden boxes and bags of supplies stacked around the stone walls. While they fussed with the metal box, she went over where a chemical lantern rested and turned it on; enhanced vision only did so much. “That’s better.” Oh yes, someone had definitely planned for them to stop by here. “So, we’re here for the day?”

“Unless you want to be killed by sunlight, yes.” Reiner popped open the tabs holding the box shut. “We’ll wait an hour after sunset for Annie and then….” His mouth pressed into a grim line for a few seconds, until he flipped open the lid.

Yeah, wouldn’t it be heartbreaking if Annie didn’t make it? Ymir allowed herself that faint hope and then focused on the nearest bag of supplies, not wanting to look at the box – at the box’s *contents* just then. Hallelujah, it contained a spare change of clothes, something that made her happy even if they looked more for Reiner than her. Eh, she’d worn worse over the years, the main thing was that they were clean.

“Oh, *poor* Eren,” she heard Bertolt gasp.

Someone – Reiner, from the sounds of it, grunted. “You know they had to do it. We’ll make him more comfortable now.”

Despite her resolve, Ymir looked over her shoulder to watch Bertolt lift an unconscious Eren from the box. The poor kid looked terrible; his normally golden-hued skin was ashen from bloodloss and probably the shit they’d pumped into him, his remarkable eyes closed and sunken in his pretty face. Bertolt cradled Eren’s limp body against his chest while Reiner began to strip off the bloody Corps uniform.

“Hey!” Ymir jumped to her feet, appalled by what they were doing.

Reiner glanced up as he tossed aside Eren’s bloodsoaked pants. “Do us a favor – bring us the blue canvas bag.”

“What the *fuck* are-“

“The blue bag, *now*.” He glared at her and pointed in the vicinity of the supplies for emphasis.

Well, that didn’t sound like someone who was messing with an unconscious person just to be a sick fuck, did it? On guard just on case he was trying to confuse her, Ymir set aside her ‘borrowed’ clothes and grabbed the blue bag, which she dropped off near Reiner. “You’re not doing anything sick to him, are you?”

“We’re making him comfortable!” Bertolt sounded offended as hell and held Eren cradled against him, his left hand even going so far as to cup against Eren’s ear.

“Okay, just checking.” Still, Ymir sat down a few feet away and faced them, not about to take their word on *anything*.

Reiner gave her a blank look for a few seconds before he began to rummage through the bag; at first he pulled out a pack of wipes, which he set aside so he could continue to rid Eren of his clothes. The bastard didn’t stop until the poor kid was completely naked, too. She noticed that the one thing he didn’t discard was the leather pouch that Eren always wore around his neck – that Reiner removed and carefully tucked away in one of his own pockets with a relieved look on his face after a quick check of its contents.

Once the clothes were gone, he pulled off the cauterizing patches to reveal that the wounds had healed to stumps and showed signs of slowly regenerating. Reiner frowned at that and reached into the bag for a small kit that contained a syringe gun, which he used to inject Eren with something in the neck.

“What the heck does that do?”

“It’ll slow down his healing factor and help keep him under control.” Reiner put the medical device back in the kit yet kept it nearby while he opened the pack of wipes; Ymir was relieved to notice that they didn’t possess an awful chemical smell but a more natural citrus one.

So they were going to continue to dope up Eren, eh? That would complicate things. She’d have to wait until he woke up and then see how much it affected him. As it was… she didn’t like how attentive, how *possessive*, Reiner and Bertolt treated Eren as they cleaned him up and dressed him up new clothes, taking the time to brush his matted hair and everything. She knew that they’d been lovers in the past, but to hear Eren talk about it, they’d been nothing but fuckbuddies. This… this didn’t look like fuckbuddies right here, it was something much more twisted. If they got out of this mess alive, she was so beating the shit out of Rebel over his messed up sense of relationships.

With Eren now tended to, Reiner leaned over to give Bertolt a kiss on the lips. “Get some rest while I take the first shift.”

“All right.” He smiled up at the blond before stretching out on the soft floor with Eren held against his chest.

Reiner watched his boyfriend or whatever settle in for the day and then got up to go sit down closer to the entrance of the tunnel. He made himself comfortable and then looked over at Ymir. “Why don’t you stay awake and keep me company.” Only with the way he said it, it didn’t exactly sound like a suggestion.

“What, you love my sparkling personality that much or something?” She finished pulling on the clean pair of pants and then stretched out on the floor.

“That’s my way of saying that I don’t really trust you and would prefer that you sleep through Bert’s shift.”

Wow, was she feeling the love right now or what? She leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees and did an exaggerated sniff. “I’m too crushed by your mistrust right now to carry on. Here I thought we were buddies.”

“You’re just here because you have nowhere else to go.” Reiner leaned back against the cave’s smooth wall and folded his arms over his chest. “That makes you desperate, not loyal.”

Wasn’t that a good summation of most of her life? “Whatever. So you really think you’re going to sway Eren over to your side so easily?”

He glanced over to where Bertolt and Eren were resting. “He won’t be happy at first, but he’ll come around.” The muscles in his jaw clenched as he looked away.

Were they talking about the same guy? This was the stubborn ‘kid’ whom Reiner and his friends had chased all over the damn world for centuries, losing more than a few colleagues along the way whenever they got too close to Eren and Mikasa. Eren’s hate for vampires had been stoked well and truly good over the years, and Reiner believed that he’d ‘come around’? Yeah, someone was a bit delusional… that or knew something he wasn’t sharing with Ymir.

Either way, it was going to be a long day, her stuck in here with a suspicious Reiner and nothing to do. Pushing up onto her feet, she decided to explore what she could of the cave, mindful to steer clear of the two sleeping figures. While she wandered around, she could try to figure out what the hell she’d do when Eren woke up.

*******


	24. Hurricane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning - there's a bit of a dubious consent scene in this chapter, right after the second Ymir scene and wit the '*******/////' at the beginning. If that's not your thing, you might want to skip, but it doesn't go on for long and the matter is confronted by a character.
> 
> Also, a little time jumping here (as in the some scenes jump back and forth a few hours in time - it just seemed to go a little better with the flow this way).
> 
> Wow, this fic is coming up to 300k words. o.O Should just be a few more chapters remaining, I really hope to get it wrapped up by the end of the year
> 
> As always, the kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!  
> *******

*******

“Are we there-“

“You finish that sentence and I will gut you with my own claws and use your spleen as Malform bait.” Levi didn’t even bother to look back to see which of the MP asswipes in particular was currently whining as they had *all* gotten on his nerves in the past hour – he’d gut them all right now on general principal – but the sincerity in his voice must have convinced them that he was perfectly serious as they all fell silent.

“Aw, tell me again why you haven’t had any kids? You’d be such a great dad.” A huge grin broke out over Hange’s face, a clear sign that she was too amused at her own joke. Meanwhile, Mikasa rolled her eyes while Rico couldn’t keep a rather dubious expression off of her sweaty face.

“So fucking funny. Why don’t I start to practice my gutting with you?” Levi reached out for the lunatic, but she just laughed and managed to dart away despite all of the shit she was carrying.

Krista made an annoyed sound and shook her head. “I thought we were out here doing something important.”

Hange’s smile slipped away as she regarded the young woman. “We are – there’s nothing saying we can’t act normal while we risk our lives undoing the damage your girlfriend caused.”

That was Hange for you, going for the throat when you least expected it. Krista looked as if she wanted to argue just then, but Mikasa came up beside Hange to give Krista a cold stare so the girl dropped it; someone else clearly wasn't in the mood to hear Ymir be defended. Considering that the backstabbing bitch had helped Eren be carried off and have the headquarters be partially destroyed, Levi wasn’t about to listen to that shit any time soon, either.

Still, it was one thing to put up with whining asswipes and another to deal with the depressing air that had settled upon the small party. “Oi, we should reach the station any minute now.” The sooner they got their supplies and horses, the better – he was sick and tired of hearing about how damn much these babies’ feet hurt from walking.

“It’s about damn time,” Jean complained. “Don’t see why we couldn’t have just used our wire to get us here.”

“Because not everyone had enough to go the distance, you idiot. And these trees aren’t the best for supporting our weight – they’re recent growth. Haven’t you been paying any attention?” Rico sounded as if she was just as tired as Levi from dealing with these morons, and the mission had barely started.

“Who are you calling an idiot? Just because I-“

They were spared more of the argument and from Levi having to carry through with his threat from earlier by the Freedom Corps’ storage station finally coming into view; it was a low building partially built into the ground, designed to weather any storms and conserve energy. Levi felt a rush of relief upon seeing it, since now they could speed up things and get back on track to rescue Eren.

He started jogging toward the light brown building, prompting complaints from Blouse and the MPs while Hange laughed in delight. As soon as he approached the large sealed main door, it began to slide open to reveal two figures highlighted by light behind them.

“Captain Levi?”

Recognizing Kailash Omar’s deep voice, Levi held up his right hand. “Yeah,” he called out, and could make out the features of the older woman standing beside the middle-aged man; working manned storage stations like these was the closest thing that served as ‘retirement’ for the Corps. Kailash and Jovita Neumar had managed to live long enough to deserve a quieter post where there wasn’t so much active fighting, along with the few others who helped to tend to the horses and maintain the supplies that were needed when the rest of the Corps went out exploring. “Me and some others.”

Kailash grunted once, a wary look on his weathered, tan face as he waved Levi inside with the prosthetic hand that didn’t hold a blade. “Captain Mike gave us a brief head’s up that you and Captain Hange were headed this way. Can’t say it made any sense, but we’ve been watching out for you.”

“Oi! Get your asses in gear so they can close the fucking door,” Levi ordered, and glared at the others until everyone was inside. Connie and Blouse came limping in last, hanging on each other as if for comfort, and then Jovita closed the door behind them with a bemused expression on her broad face. “Mike say much of anything else?”

“Just that we were to give you want you need and to pass on that the Commander’s handling things.” Jovita watched Levi carefully as she relayed the message.

“Great, Erwin’s always ‘handling’ things, that’s what gets us in so much trouble.” Fuck Mike and his apparent dislike of words, couldn’t he have said something along the lines of ‘Erwin’s got the fuckers on the run’ or ‘the bastard’s not in jail yet’? Levi found himself gritting his teeth together and forced himself to stop before he sprouted fangs. “Whatever’s going on, we need a horse for each of us, plus a spare and three others for supplies, and enough supplies to last us at least until we can hit another station.”

Jovita frowned and looked back at Kailash, who was busy pulling up a screen on a datapad. “Where’s the next station that you plan to hit? Never mind the fact that you’re outside when no one’s supposed to be outside, which we’re doing our best to ignore.”

Levi waved that last bit aside. “That’s just it, we don’t know where the next station will be, so estimate for the worst.”

Kailash swore beneath his breath while Jovita threw her hands up in the air. “You just love making our lives difficult.” The man typed a few things on the datapad and then nodded. “Give Henri half an hour to work on your packs while Amy and Jan get the horses ready.”

“I’ll go help them with the horses.” Jovita smiled at Levi and Hange, her teeth bright against her dark skin, as she passed them by. “Next time you’re by, I expect to hear one heck of a story.”

“We’ll even supply the vodka,” Hange promised.

Half an hour was a bit of a wait, but Levi supposed that it couldn’t be helped since he hadn’t planned on them being much faster. “Hange, show everyone around so they can grab a bite to eat and take a shit – we’re going to take advantage of the fresh horses as long as we can.”

“Yes, Sir!” The crazy bitch executed a perfect salute before waving everyone deeper into the building. He watched them leave for a moment before heading toward the area where they prepped the travel packs.

Kailash followed, his prosthetic hand busy as it typed on the datapad. “So, you guys are outside when there’s supposed to be too much solar radiation, I’ve never seen the majority of your team before and something’s going on with the commander?”

“Something’s always going on with that bastard,” Levi grumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck. He glanced aside and caught the ‘don’t give me any shit, you young brat’ look that Kailash was giving him and sighed. “First off, apparently we’ve been lied to for decades at the least about the solar radiation levels, which is how we’re outside without getting fried. Not sure that Erwin and Shadis are ready to go public with that yet, so keep it quiet – especially since I get the feeling it’s part of the reason why Erwin’s probably in trouble right now. Apparently we pissed off a minister back in the dome who has some… rather shady friends.”

“When *don’t* you two piss off someone?” Kailash shook his head before he opened the door leading to the prep room. “Makes me glad to be stationed out here, even if we’re eating rations by the last month or two.”

A rather high-pitched voice bellowed forth at their entrance. “I *told* you half an hour!” Henri, an older man who had to be nearing his sixties and even shorter than Levi, was racing back and forth along a table as various bots brought him supplies. “Who the hell rushes packs for ten people during the damn dome season?” He looked as if he’d been pulling at the bit of grey hair that he had left in-between prepping the packs, and came to a halt when he spotted Levi. “Should have known it was *you*.”

“Yeah, always a pleasure to see you, too, Ducha. I’m gonna need you to supply some spare uniforms for the mission, just enough to get us to the next station.” He picked up the datapad at the table and began typing in the various sizes they’d need, guessing when it came to the MPs and Rico – if they didn’t fit well, tough shit, they’d have to manage until they could restock. At least they’d have clean clothes.

“Such a pain in the ass. Clean clothes, don’t skimp on the soap, pack the water purifier tablets, don’t forget the tarps…. Prissy bastards like you shouldn’t be outside in the first place,” Henri sneered. “In my day we’d live out there for a month with a horse, a blanket and knife and be damn thankful for the blanket.”

“Don’t bitch at me because you were a dumb fuck, and don’t stint on my pack or I’ll come back to kick your ass.” Threat issued, Levi glared at the grumpy old fuck for added measure before going to take care of a few basic needs while still able to enjoy the luxury of running water and evenly heated food.

When the half hour was up, he led his grumbling, rag-tag team toward the stables to find their horses saddled, packed and waiting for them in front of another large door that led outside. Kailash was there, along with two of the women who looked after the horses for the Corps.

Jan limped over to Levi and handed him the reins to a black and grey striped gelding that was a hand or two smaller than the others. “Here you go, he should be just your type.” He patted the horse on the neck a couple of times before mounting, pleased at how it settled after a few steps. Hange was cooing to her horse, a roan and white spotted gelding, while Mikasa was already on her dark brown mare and waiting for Blouse to mount.

Rico eyed the white and black striped gelding presented to her for a moment and did a semi-decent job of getting into the saddle, while the MPs stared in a mix of confusion and dread at the animals. “Uhm, I don’t think any of us have ridden before,” Jean admitted as he took a hasty step back from the bay gelding as it turned its head toward him.

“Then you better learn quickly,” Levi snapped. “Get on the damn horse or I’m leaving you behind.” He didn’t have any time to waste.

“You just put your foot in the stirrup, like this,” Blouse tried to explain. “No, the other one,” she warned her boyfriend.

“Is it trying to eat me? I think it’s trying to eat me!” Marlo cringed as the horse sniffed at his hair.

“Please, you’d be missing chunks if that was the case,” Amy told him, her tone exasperated as she nearly shoved the idiot up onto the horse. “Just sit there and let Captains Ackerman and Hange be in the lead, okay? The horses will follow them.” She gave Levi a scathing look that let him know she wasn’t happy about her horses being taken out by a bunch of senseless rookies. “And don’t yank on the reins – in fact, don’t touch them until you learn to ride.”

“I’ll help them out,” Mikasa offered as she nudged her horse over near Jean’s, where the idiot MP was nearly lying sprawled out over the horse’s neck.

“Me too!” Blouse had managed to get Connie up on the horse and had taken over its reins as if to lead it along.

Levi checked to make sure that Rico and Krista looked as if they weren’t going to fall off any time soon and found them both settled on top of their mounts; Rico appeared nervous but trying not to show it while Krista seemed to be doing the best out of all the new riders. He wondered if Ymir had managed to get her lessons somehow but didn’t really care as long as it meant that she wouldn’t be a problem. “All right, keep your asses in the saddles because we’re not going to stop for a few hours.” He ignored the groans that came from the baby MPs and nodded toward Kailash to open the door.

The older man nodded back before he did just that and waved them onward. “Be careful out there.”

Levi waved as he rode on past, focused on finally being able to hunt after Eren now that they were prepared. He heard Amy’s gruff voice call out some helpful instructions to the baby MPs as they rode out through the exit, as well as a few yelps and cries when the horses began to move in earnest. As long as he didn’t hear any bodies impacting onto the ground, he figured they were all good.

Mikasa had said that those bastards would come out from the south of the dome, so they needed to get there as quickly as possible and then start tracking them; they wouldn’t make it by sundown, but they’d close the gap as much as possible.

Hange rode up toward him with an uncharacteristic frown on her face. “You think we’ll be able to make much time with this bunch?”

“We better.” Levi glared as he glanced over his shoulder to see the baby MPs clinging to their poor horses’ necks while Mikasa and Blouse kept offering advice on how to sit properly; Rico was picking up the skill quickly and Krista was once again keeping some distance from everyone. The spare gelding for Eren and the pack horses were strung together and following along, trained to stay with the ‘herd’. “Because I’m not allowing us to be slowed down for anything.”

Hange made a sniffing sound and even went so far as to wipe at the corners of her eyes. “It’s so touching to see you finally care about something other than taking a shit or violence for once. Eren must be a spectacular piece of a-“

“Do you really think I won’t leave you strung up as Malform bait?” Levi bared his teeth at her, his fangs on full display as the colors drained out of the world.

“Oooh, already a day without sex and you’re getting all tetchy.” Hange shook her head back and forth. “Guess we better get your cutie back as soon as possible.”

He glared at her for a few seconds before realizing that she was serious. “Damn right we better,” he mumbled, a little embarrassed by her fervent response. They were going to get the brat back, end of story.

“Dammit, my ass hurts. Do we really have to ride these things?”

Correct that – he, Hange and Mikasa were going to get the brat back. It was seriously looking as if the rest were going to end up as Malform bait at this point.

*******

Eren was warm and wrapped in Levi’s strong arms, feeling drowsy at the moment and unwilling to move. He could hear Mikasa and Armin arguing about something in the distance, but he was so comfortable where he was, so content just to rest against Levi’s broad chest that he murmured a little and let his head loll backwards, his eyes closed as the sense of exhaustion weighed him down. Why did they have to argue? Couldn’t they just be quiet and enjoy the peacefulness of the moment? It wasn’t like Mikasa and Armin to disagree so loudly like that – no, normally it was Mikasa and Levi who would be arguing about something. He tilted his head to nuzzle at his lover’s jaw, his limbs unresponsive for some reason, and was confused when he felt soft material against his cheek. Was Levi wearing a turtleneck or something? Maybe a scarf like Mikasa? Why was his scent all wrong…?

Forcing his heavy eyelids to open, Eren found the world to be blurry and dim at first, until it slowly came into focus. He stared in confusion at the figures gesturing wildly on front of him as they weren’t Mikasa and Armin; they didn’t look anything like his sister and dear friend, weren’t the people he’d lived with for the past few decades. Wasn’t that Ymir? And… and wasn’t that….

His chest seized as he struggled to draw in a breath; he attempted to back away, to put some space between himself and Reiner, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t gain any traction for some reason. First, there was the solid weight behind him, the strong arms wrapped around his chest, and then his legs… oh *fuck* what was wrong with his legs?

“Relax, Eren, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

Bert, wasn’t that Bertolt’s voice? Eren continued to panic at being unable to move, to free himself, his arms flailing as his legs – his fucked *up* legs – moved about to no good and he remained still, remained trapped. Air moved in and out of his lungs, faster and faster as he was couldn’t escape, couldn’t seem to move or think or-

Reiner was suddenly in his space with his hands on Eren’s shoulders, which caused Eren to snarl and snap his teeth, his right hand lashing out with claws fully extended. There was the scent of blood and then his arm was pinned against his side and a flash of pain in his neck and….

… and the world grew soft and fuzzy, slowly lost its focus as his body felt flushed and loose and warm all over. There seemed to be two Reiners before him, and for some reason he didn’t seem to care at all.

“Fuck, but he’s burning through this stuff faster than we thought,” the Reiners said while running their hands through his hair and pushing it back from his face. “We’ll need to up the dosage.” He found himself closing his eyes and leaning into the touch for some reason, the world too confusing just then to focus upon. Where had Mikasa and Levi gone? Why did they leave him?

“It must be his hybrid nature. We were never able to retrieve a proper sample from him.” The arms around him tightened and hugged him back against that almost satisfying warmth – it would be better if it smelled like Levi. Smelled like tea and soap and *Levi*. But at least it was familiar, he thought as he rested his head against the cloth-covered surface and sighed.

“Sleepy,” he mumbled, annoyed at all the talking.

“We know,” the deep voice told him, sounding amused. “You just keep sleeping for now and it’ll be all right.” Warm lips pressed against his forehead, but something wasn’t right. The scent wasn’t right, and the words were too kind. Where was the gruff tone? He missed the gruff tone.

“Okay, this is getting creepy – your guys into narcolepsy or what?”

“We’re doing what’s necessary, so shut up and mind your own business.” Eren didn’t like how sharp the voices had become and stirred a little, only to be held tighter.

“Yeah? Well, my business is not being caught by a bunch of pissed off people with swords, so when are we getting our asses into gear? You can’t tell me that his sister and boyfriend aren’t on our trail so the longer we sit here, the bigger a target we have on our backs!”

“Annie-“

“Is *late*, so just accept the fact that she ran into some shit and will have to catch up whenever!”

“Yeah, it breaks your heart if we have to move on without her, doesn’t it?”

Eren didn’t like the loud voices, didn’t like that they weren’t Mikasa’s or Armin’s or Levi’s and struggled against the weight pressing against him, struggled against the exhaustion that made him just want to keep his eyes closed and accept everything. He moaned and tried to open his eyes, to move his arms even though it actually *hurt* to do so. Immediately, the pressure around his chest, his arms increased and someone whispered in his ear to relax, to just go back to sleep. Someone who wasn’t Levi, but who seemed so familiar….

“Look, you want to stay here and get caught? Fine. You want to get him away before his family catches up? Then let’s get our asses into gear, because the last thing I want is to run into Mikasa or that shitty captain right now.”

There was some shifting about and then another painful bite against Eren’s neck and the feel of warm, soft lips against his forehead. “Later, Eren,” someone murmured as the darkness overtook him.

*******

Erwin watched as the MPs descended into the battle-scarred courtyard of the Freedom Corps’ headquarters and took some comfort in being flanked by Mike and Armin; it wasn’t quite the same as having Levi and Hange by his side, per usual, but Mike was a highly capable member of the Corps and had been with him for a very long time while Armin was so much more than he seemed. He’d taken note of the ‘young’ man ever since Armin had joined the Corps, paid attention to Hange’s updates and had been even more surprised during their hectic preparations for the MPs’ arrival today. Oh yes, he’d chosen wisely in asking for the siblings’ foster child to help him out with this little show down.

His back straight and chin held high, he stepped out to greet his old friend Nile Dok. “Nile, it’s good to see you.”

Nile stared at him in blatant confusion while the squad he brought with him gaped at the scene around them, at the destroyed wall, the puddles of Malform goo left out and obvious signs of a hard-fought battle. The final thing that drew their attention was the remains of the 104th clustered behind Erwin with their blades held at the ready. “Erwin, we don’t want a fight on our hands – just come with us peacefully, you and Ackerman.”

“Well, I can only speak for myself – I’m afraid that Levi isn’t here anymore.”

Nile’s narrow face darkened upon hearing the news. “What, did he flee? He can’t possibly be trying to hide for us within the dome.”

“That’s just it, he’s not in the dome.” Erwin smiled when Nile’s expression turned into one of confusion.

“Did… is he dead? I thought he was one of the Corps’ best, if not *the* best.”

“No, he was fine the last I saw of him, he’s just not in the dome anymore.” Erwin continued to smile until it finally sunk in, what he meant.

The blood drained from Nile’s face. “But that… that’s impossible.”

“Is it?” Erwin gestured around him. “I’m sure if you asked people, they would say that it’s also impossible that Malforms would be able to attack like this, using explosives to take down a wall. Or to destroy several domes in unison. Yet this is what we’re seeing, no? The impossible is happening all of the time and people aren’t batting an eye.”

“But that’s….” Nile shook his head. “We’re here to take you and Captain Ackerman into custody. If he’s not available, then we still have to-“

“*Have to*? Since when do you have to do anything?” Erwin folded his arms over his chest. “Look about you, Nile. My headquarters was attacked in an obviously planned attack, something that couldn’t be carried out by Malforms alone. We’re the only thing standing between this dome being overrun by the creatures. Yet you’re going to take me in? What’s going to happen then? Are the MPs going to face the Malforms themselves? Will *you* be the frontline to protect this dome?”

Nile’s face continued to lose color as he shook his head in either denial or disbelief, and the people gathered around him began to shift about, their expressions suddenly uneasy. “We have our orders, Erwin.”

“Yes, your orders. Did they ever say why Levi and I were to be brought in?”

“For insurgence and instigation.” Nile was almost apologetic as he listed the crimes. “You’ve been spreading malignant rumors.”

“And what rumors would those be, hmm? What exactly have you heard?” Erwin smiled at his old friend and waited for an answer, during which time the sweat continued to drip from Nile’s face. “Can’t think of anything, can you? Well, let me see if I can’t provide *something*, no?” He spun around and began to walk toward the main building.

“Erwin. Erwin, dammit!” He heard Nile scramble to follow, while Mike and Armin fell in step beside him. “This – this isn’t supposed to be happening! You should be coming with us quietly!”

“Unless you want to fight what remains of the 104th, you’ll follow me,” Erwin informed the man in as cold a voice he could muster. “There is something you really should see.”

Nile grumbled a little but ordered his squad to remain outside as he hurried to catch up to Erwin. “You know this will only delay the inevitable, correct? I have my orders – I have to obey them.” He paused for a moment. “Dammit, you should have run with that captain of yours.”

So Nile truly had tried to give him a chance to escape; Erwin smiled a little as he shook his head and wondered *where* he’d escape to – commandeer a shuttle and hide in another dome, maybe? Nile really didn’t know him very well, did he? “I don’t run from a fight, especially when people’s lives are on the line.” He led the way to Hange’s lab, where they’d taken the one good outcome they’d gotten out of the fight earlier, if you’d want to call it that. “So, my understanding is that I’ve upset a minister, no?”

Nile swore beneath his breath and then eventually nodded. “I don’t know what you did, but yes, it seems you’ve got a minister after your head. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. Just turn yourself in and I’ll see what can be done about sparing the rest of your division.” He was probably telling the truth. Probably.

Erwin’s smile was genuine when he shook his head, and he had to hold up his hand to keep Mike from attacking the man. “Thank you, but no thanks. I believe it’s more important for you to see what’s in one of our labs here.” He motioned ahead of him while meeting Nile’s gaze. “Did you ever wonder where your minister got his information on my ‘insubordinate’ activities?”

It wasn’t much of a surprise when Nile ducked his head and no longer met his eyes. “It’s not my job to question my higher-ups.”

“Hmm, no, I suppose not. But it is your job to monitor those who report to you, yes? I understand that you had some new recruits this season?” Erwin paused while Armin opened the door to Hange’s lab. “They all should have passed the usual background checks, yes?”

Nile’s face became flushed and he hesitated to enter the room. “Look, where are you going with this? If this is a trap of-“

“No trap, I promise you that. You’ll understand my questions once you enter.” Erwin motioned for his old friend to proceed him into the room. “No harm will come to you, that I swear.”

Nile continued to hesitate for a few seconds before storming into the room. “You’re only delaying the inevitable, Erwin. It’ll go so much better for you if you quietly-“ His voice died out as he spotted the large, golden crystal that Armin and Mike had moved into the lab before the MPs had arrived.

Erwin gave him a few seconds to take in the sight before speaking. “Impressive, isn’t it? I’m sad to say that Hange didn’t have much time to examine it before she left as well, but I’ve every faith in Armin here that he can provide some answers in her place.” He walked around the crystal and placed a hand on its smooth, hard surface. “The little we *can* tell is that she’s still alive inside of it. You do recognize her, don’t you? Several of my people place her as one of your own MPs.”

His mouth moved several times before any sound came out. “That’s… that’s Leonhart. Annie Leonhart. She’s a new recruit – how the *hell* did you get her in there! Get her out, now!” Nile reached for Erwin, only to have his hands knocked aside by a scowling Mike.

“No, I’m afraid that we had very little to do with her ending up in there – it was by her own choice.” Erwin reached for the datapad that was on the workstation near the chrysalis and handed it to Nile, the video footage edited quickly by Moblit just before the MP’s arrival. “See for yourself.” The video started to play as soon as Nile touched the device.

Erwin knew what the man was viewing and watched Nile’s face instead as he stared down at the edited footage of Annie’s dramatic arrival at the headquarters and her fight with Mikasa; Moblit had done what he could to hide Mikasa’s true nature and features, instead picking scenes from the cameras scattered around the courtyard that showed Annie leading the Malforms through the destroyed wall and her slaughtering anyone who got in her way – including Petra. The last few images were of Annie lying on the ground and the crystal forming around her. “Try to tell me that she’s human, Nile. Just… just *try*.” His hands clenched as he wondered if his old friend could be that delusional.

Nile stared at the datapad for several seconds after the footage stopped, his hands trembling and his face almost ashen with… fear? Disbelief? “How… I *talked* to her! I gave her orders! She… she seemed so *human*!”

Erwin almost felt sorry for the man – almost. “Yes, her kind do an amazing job at fooling us, don’t they?” He reached over to retrieve the datapad. “So what we have here is proof that one of the MPs’ own attacked *my* base, a *Freedom Corps* base, and you want to arrest *me*?” His voice grew louder as he continued to speak. “When it’s so blatantly clear that if there’s any insubordination or instigation going on, it’s happening within your own ranks!”

Nile flinched at the words and shook his head. “I… I have to leave. This needs… they don’t know about this.” He wiped a trembling hand over his sweat-slick face and took a hasty step backwards.

“Just so you know, I’ve shared the video you’ve just viewed and footage of the chrysalis with both Commander Pixis and my fellow officers in the Freedom Corps,” Erwin warned as Nile continued to retreat from the room. “It’s already spread past this dome.”

The only response he received was a look of pure fear from Nile before the man went running into the hallway. Erwin watched after him for several seconds and when it seemed as if Nile wasn’t about to return with the rest of his squad, sighed and set the datapad aside. “Well, that went better than I expected.”

“He’s terrified,” Mike grunted while he rubbed his nose. “Doesn’t know what to do so he’ll go running back to that minister.”

“Yes, and we’re prepared for that.” Erwin nodded to Armin, who went over to the nearest computer and logged on. “Are you able to access their network?”

“The IDs weren’t perfect, but they got me in far enough that I could push a bit further on my own.” Armin glanced over his right shoulder and smiled. “It’s good enough that I’ll be able to catch any attempts they make at wiping out Annie’s ID or any other attempts at a cover-up. Then I’ll follow them back to the evidence.”

Erwin knew it would be helpful to have someone around who could hack into the networks, even if Armin didn’t believe himself to be very skilled. “Find whatever you can – it’s probably not going to be enough to take down the Chairman or Zackly, but it’ll get them to back off for now. We just need a bit longer to put all the pieces together.” Hopefully Levi and Hange would find something of use while outside.

Armin nodded and resumed his typing for another minute. “Uhm, what’s going to happen to Annie?”

A bit surprised by the question, Erwin frowned and shared a confused look with Mike. “I’m not sure – we’ll have to move her someplace more secure in case she can dissolve the chrysalis as easily as she created it.”

“Oh, okay.” Armin sounded a little upset about that, but he continued to monitor the MPs’ computer network.

“Let me know if there’s any activity,” Erwin ordered before leaving the room with Mike. Armin nodded in agreement, clearly focused on the task, and both men were quiet until they were out in the hallway. “Station at least two people in there at all times while the vampire is on the premises,” he asked Mike, well aware of how badly their numbers were depleted at the moment.

Mike paused for a moment before nodding. “You don’t think she’ll be here very long?”

“I think the disadvantage in us revealing her is that we’ll receive an order shortly demanding that she be taken into custody, either for the safety of the dome or for research purposes.” Considering that his division was in desperate need of able bodies, Erwin wouldn’t be able to fight the order, not if handing the vampire over meant that he’d bought more time for him, Pixis and Shadis to come up with a better plan – he was just grateful that Hange wasn’t here to wail about the loss of her scientific experiment.

Mike sniffed once and shook his head. “Better to kill it now, then.”

“I would if I could figure it out.” Erwin rubbed at the nape of his neck, the day’s frenetic pace finally catching up with him. “I suspect that the only thing that might break her out of there is either another vampire or something she does herself, and there’s little we can do about the latter.”

“But the former?”

He smiled at his old friend. “Well, if we see the bloodthirsty bitch about, we have even more proof that Zackly’s dealing with vampires, no? Why should Levi have all the fun of playing with them?”

Mike peered at him from beneath his overlong bangs for a few seconds in a clear ‘you are *insane*’ look and shook his head. “Levi’s right about you,” was all he mumbled before strolling off.

*******

Ymir timed breaking the branch just as she landed on the larger limb of the tree; she kept leaving ‘markers’ for Mikasa and that short bastard of a captain, certain that at least those two would be out here soon enough looking for Eren. She had to hope that one or both of them had done something to Annie, because if the other vampire caught up to them and noticed the trail she was leaving… yeah, Ymir would have some serious explaining to do.

“How’s he doing? Do I need to dose him again?” Reiner slowed down enough to let Bertolt catch up to him and checked up on Eren, who was strapped to the taller vampire’s back. Ymir hopped forward so she could rest on a thick tree branch not too far away, close enough that she could easily see and hear everything.

She pretended to be more concerned with taking a sip of water from the bottle she’d snatched from their supplies while Reiner tilted back Eren’s head and looked at his face. “He still seems out of it, but maybe I should give him another shot.”

“We don’t want him to build up too much of an immunity to the stuff,” Bertolt chided.

“Yeah, but I also don’t want him to wake up and tear into you like he did that one time!” Reiner didn’t sound happy over the memory and his fingers tightened in Eren’s tousled hair. “Maybe I should-“

“He’s fine where he is, and leave him alone for now. We can’t keep him doped up all of the time.”

“I know.” Reiner sighed before he let Eren’s head rest back against his boyfriend’s shoulder. “All right, let me know if he seems to wake up. We’ll keep moving for another hour or two before we stop for daylight.” He brushed the back of his fingers along Bertolt’s left check before he resumed leading them through the forest.

Well, that was some good news there, Ymir thought to herself as she twisted the lid back onto the water bottle; Eren would be waking up at some point in the near future. Now all she needed was a chance to talk to him… and to hope that he wouldn’t try to rip out her throat over her betraying him. If she could get him to see that she hadn’t any real choice in the matter and that they both needed to cooperate with each other to get out of this mess alive, then so much the better.

But first, she needed to get Eren alone. Something told her that wasn’t going to be so easy, considering how clingy those two were being and how little they trusted her. And all this before someone else arrived to save Eren’s ass. Ymir fought the urge to rush forward and smack the back of Eren’s head while he slept on in blissful ignorance, leaving all of the complicated shit up to her to do. Okay, so maybe she betrayed him and had gotten them both into this mess, but she had a little trouble feeling sorry for his ass right then when he was being carried around like some princess while doped up to the gills and she had at least two psychopaths gunning for *her* ass. The little shit better show some gratitude her for getting him out of this mess, was all she was saying.

*******

“Listen, you brain-dead *fucks*, if I hear *one* *more* *word* of you whining about your sore asses or empty bellies, I will pull out your shitty entrails, wrap them around your necks and leave you behind in the trees for the shitty undead freaks to feed upon, do you hear me?”

Someone was in rare form tonight, wasn’t he? Mikasa shared a look with the quiet Engineer riding beside her and shrugged, used to Captain Ackerman’s profane outbursts by now. To be honest, the whining from Jean, Connie and the unfamiliar MP had been grating on her nerves as well, since all she wanted to do was to find Eren. It was frustrating to be slowed down by people unfamiliar with horseback riding and being outside, even if she realized that they may prove useful in the near future.

“But-“

“What the fuck did I just say?” Captain Ackerman’s eyes glowed in the fading light, two golden spots that bobbed up and down as his striped mount trotted along.

“Uhm, it *is* getting really dark out,” Sasha stuttered out. “How much longer are we going to ride?”

“The horses are used to it, and that’s why you have the fucking night vision goggles in your kit.” The captain sneered as he spoke before he turned to look ahead.

Sasha sent a pleading look at Mikasa, then glanced back over her shoulder; Mikasa knew what she was trying to catch a glimpse behind them of anything that might be following. She might not have the enhanced senses of vampires or… whatever Mikasa and the short bastard were, but she could apparently sense that they weren’t alone anymore. From what Mikasa could smell, there had been a few cats stalking them, and a couple of Malform as well.

“Sir.” Mikasa forced herself to speak in as deferential a manner as possible. “I want to find Eren as quickly as you do, but it won’t do us any good if we’re attacked.” It galled her to admit that, to slow down the hunt for Reiner and Bertolt, for *Ymir*, but the most important thing was being *able* to reach her brother. “We’re almost at the exit of the tunnel – let’s see what we find there before we decide to continue pushing on for the night.”

He turned on his horse to glare at her, his eyes even brighter in the darkness, but instead of cursing her out he clicked his tongue a couple of times and nodded twice. Emboldened by his silent assent, she urged her horse forward so she could scout out the tunnel’s exit.

She could still smell Malform lurking about, but for now they were too few in number to dare approaching when they sensed her and the captain. Hissing for good measure to try to scare them away, she scanned around the smooth wall of the dome until she spotted the barely disturbed soil that indicated where the access panel had opened and closed. “It’s here,” she announced as she pulled on the mare’s reins to slow her horse down enough before she leapt to the ground.

Captain Ackerman was quick to join her, along with Sasha and Krista. “How long ago do you think they were here,” he demanded to know. “Can we catch up with them?” He took a deep breath and exhaled it sharply. “I… dammit, I can barely smell them.”

“That’s the downside of being outside.” Mikasa cast about for any other sign of her brother, for some tracks that might let her know where he’d been taken, but Reiner and Bertolt were too old, too skilled, and knew how to disappear. “There’s too many other scents to cover over things.” She growled as her own fangs extended. “Damn them!”

Sasha, her body glowing against the greyness of the forest in Mikasa’s hunting vision, paused for a moment as she fumbled for the pack slung over her left shoulder and pulled out her night vision goggles. “Wait a minute.” She shoved them over her head, her bangs plastered against her forehead, and fiddled with the adjustments. “There’s something in that tree over there.” Uncaring for the animals that crouched in the underbrush, she took several steps forward.

Mikasa rushed to her side and bared her fangs to scare off the knee-high speckled cat that was crouching less than a foot away. “Be careful! There’s Malform around here, and worse.”

“There’s worse than Malforms out here?” Sasha turned her goggled face in Mikasa’s direction for a moment before she resumed examining the trees. “Uhm, look up there.” She gestured upward to the huge oak tree looming above her.

Mikasa stared in confusion for a moment until she noticed the broken branch hanging at a nearly 90 degree angle. “It’s broken!”

“Yes, and there were slash marks in another tree closer to the clearing.” Sasha nodded while she pushed up the goggles. “I think someone is leaving us a trail to follow.”

By that point, Captain Ackerman and Krista had caught up to them, and Krista gasped as she stared into the tree. “It’s Ymir! She’s letting us know where they’re going!”

“Of all the bullsh-“

“No!” Krista spun around to face the short bastard, her eyes glowing and fangs fully extended. “I know it’s her! She didn’t go with them because she wanted to, she went because that man was going to shoot me! She could have killed people before she left but she didn’t, so she’s not the enemy!”

“She gave them my *brother*,” Mikasa shouted, not in the mood to hear Ymir be defended when the bitch had betrayed her, had betrayed *Eren*.

“Did you ever stop to think if she had any choice in it?” Krista pointed a clawed finger at her, her expression just as furious as her tone. “Because she’s not acting like someone who chose to betray a friend! Not if she’s helping us now!”

“How do we know that this isn’t-“

Captain Hange approached them with her hands held up in a placating manner. “Uhm, can we leave this debate for another time, before all this yelling attracts every single predator around for miles?”

Hating to admit that the human was right, Mikasa growled in anger before she threw her own hands up in the air. “She’s going to pay for what she’s done.”

“That’s fine, but we have to find her and Eren first,” Captain Hange pointed out. “At least it looks as if now we have a way of doing that.”

“And what if it’s a damn trick, huh? A way of luring us away from Eren,” the short bastard demanded to know.

Captain Hange shook her head while giving Krista a warning look to keep the girl quiet. “Somehow I doubt that – it would take up too much of their resources to have one of them lay a false path.”

“We don’t know that,” he argued, but he sounded more surly than anything.

“No, but why would Ymir go through the trouble of telling us that they were fleeing outside and then give us a false path to follow? If she wanted to trick us, she would have told us to look for them in one of the other domes first.” Captain Hange pushed up her glasses while she waited for the stubborn man to see reason, and Krista looked vindicated by the logical argument.

Even Mikasa had to agree that it made sense, and wasn’t surprised when Captain Ackerman grunted once and turned away. “Fine, then if we have a trail to follow, we can camp here for the night. I want everyone to be ready to bust their asses as soon as daylight breaks.”

“Now you’re talking! There’s more daylight hours than night so we’ll make better progress that way, and it’ll be easier to follow the trail then!” Captain Hange hurried to catch up to him and started babbling about camp perimeters and watch schedules.

Krista went after them, but paused near Mikasa. “You’ll see that I’m right – Ymir’s not like the other vampires.”

“Ymir’s not like anyone else because she’s *only* interested in taking care of herself,” Mikasa shot back, and hurried away before the foolish girl could try to argue anymore. As much as she wanted to blame Krista for trusting Ymir so blindly, this was as much her fault as anyone’s – she knew that Ymir couldn’t really be trusted, so why had she put any faith in the vampire? Why had she ever let her get close to Eren? She should have killed her the moment she showed up at the base.

Seeing that the two captains were busy talking to Rico about something and that Jean was huddled together with Connie and the other MP – Marlo, she had to think of him as Marlo since he was here to help rescue Eren – Mikasa went to check on the horses. Someone, probably Rico and Hange, had tethered them together, so she began to remove their tack so they could be comfortable during the night. She was in the process of removing the saddle from Rico’s horse when she heard someone approach.

“Hey, do you need any help?” Jean eyed the gelding with some caution and smiled nervously.

Mikasa handed him the saddle and motioned over to where she had stacked the rest of them. “Put it there and then watch me so you can help out tomorrow night.” It would be best if he got a little more familiar around the animals first before becoming so hands on with them.

“Do you think they’ll be all right during the night?”

She shrugged while she moved on to the next horse. “They’re bred and trained to be pretty tough. Look at their hooves.” She pointed down at the mare’s hooves, which were very large for its size and had edged metal gleaming around its base. “The last thing you want is to have one of them kick you. About the only thing that’ll willingly take them on are starving Malform or rabid hogs.”

Jean began to edge away from the horse he was standing by while eyeing it as if it would attack him at any moment. “I thought they were supposed to be nice and domesticated.”

“Most are, but the Corps bred in the genes of a wilder strain a couple of centuries ago because they needed something that could survive better out here.” She handed him another saddle.

He paused as he accepted it and frowned. “You sure know a lot, don’t you? About these horses, being outside, the vampires and even the tunnels.” He went to put the saddle down and then came back, his expression serious as he stared intently at her. “How do you know so much about these things? I mean, not even the captains know about everything you do.”

Mikasa tugged up her scarf while turning back to deal with the horses; she didn’t want to face this right now, didn’t want to lose this… this tenuous thing with Jean. “We need to finish with the horses before-“

“*No*, the horses can wait.” Jean grabbed hold of her arm for a moment and gave it a quick squeeze. “Please, Mikasa. I gave up the MP, something I worked so hard for, and it didn’t matter to me as long as you were all right. I followed you out here even though I still can’t believe I’m outside the friggen dome, so don’t you think I deserve some answers?” He sounded so earnest just then, so plaintive, that she had no choice but to look up at him.

He didn’t look frightened or angry or upset, just desperate as if he expected her to ignore his request, so she found herself reaching out to cup his face as she sighed. “You’re not going to like what I have to say.”

Relief flashed through his brown eyes and he smiled, just a little. “You don’t know that. The truth can’t be worse than what I’m thinking right now, can it?”

“I don’t know about that, as it’s… well, it’s pretty damning on its own.” It had driven more than one friend and lover away over the years, and she found that it hurt more than she would like to think that it was about to do that again. She had believed herself prepared for the day when she’d have to leave Jean behind, for when she’d lose him like so many others, yet…. She shook her head and led him away from the horses.

“It’s best for your sake for me to not tell you everything, but for now, know that I’m a lot older than I look.”

Jean’s smile grew at that explanation. “How much older are we talking? Like a few years older? Ten?”

“Try centuries,” she told him, and continued to stare evenly at him until he realized that she wasn’t joking.

“You mean… but that’s.” He shook his head several times while taking a step back as if unsteady on his feet. “How is that possible?” He didn’t pull away further away from her, but he stared at her as if she wasn’t real.

Her eyes stinging with tears, she pressed the scarf against her chin and wished fervently that Eren was here. “It’s because of what Eren and I are – we don’t seem to age. We’re… we’re like vampires, in a way, but we’re not bothered by sunlight. That’s how we survived outside for so long.”

“But… *how*?” Jean reached out to touch her face as if doubting that she was real, and his fingers trembled against her cheek. “How is that possible?”

“So-someone created a serum that did this to us. It’s why they want Eren – he was the first one turned that way.” She dared to tilt her face into his touch and hoped that he wouldn’t push her away.

Jean let out a shaky breath and laughed, the sound a little weak. “And I thought he was a kid? He’s as old as you?” When she nodded he laughed again. “I knew there was something special about you,” he breathed out. “You’re just… you’re just so amazing. I knew you couldn’t be like everyone else.”

Tears slipped free as she rushed forward to press her face against his neck, too stunned that he wasn’t pushing her away, wasn’t calling her names - calling her a freak - for her to say anything. He held her close and pressed kisses against the top of her head while he told her that it was okay, and for a minute or two it was, for that brief time she could forget that Eren was gone, was hurt and in trouble and that she had failed to keep him safe.

But she couldn’t forget that for long so she pulled away and wiped away the tears. “I have to find him – my brother. We’ve been together – he’s all I have.”

“Centuries, yeah?” Jean let out another slow breath as his arms remained wrapped around her. “We’ll get him back.”

‘We’ll’ he’d said. She pushed aside her scarf so she could smile up at him, even as she shook her head. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”

“Yeah, but I want to.” He grinned as he tucked aside the hair falling onto her face. “I hear it makes a great impression on your girlfriend’s brother if you save his ass.”

“That’s if you don’t fall off of a horse before then.”

The reminder of his poor riding skill seemed to deflate some of Jean’s good mood a little. “Ah, yeah, let’s hope we find him soon.” He held out his left arm to lead Mikasa back to the horses so they could finish their task, his steps more of a shuffle than a walk. “So, ah, what about Captain Ackerman and the blonde girl, Krista? Are they as old as you, too?”

“No.” Some of her good mood faded at the reminder of those two. “Not at all.”

Jean looked as if he wanted to ask more questions, but the sharpness of her tone probably warned him away from the topic. “Ah, okay. I just thought that there might be something going on with the captain and your brother, considering how he always looked after him when I ran into them and is so hard-ass about getting him back.”

If he only knew. “You could say that there’s… something.” When Jean gave her a curious look, she merely shook her head to show that she was unwilling to go into it… well, *ever*.

“Okay, so we’re not going to talk about the homicidal captain and the bratty looking… well, your brother.” Jean shuddered a little as he rubbed at the small of his back. “Yeah, this is gonna be a fun trip, isn’t it?”

Mikasa thought about dealing with Captain Ackerman, Captain Hange’s general insanity, Krista’s insistence that Ymir hadn’t betrayed them, the myriad dangers that awaited them as they ventured away from the dome and the inexperience of most of their party – she had to agree with the sarcastic comment. Still, she smiled at him while she fussed with her scarf. “What’s life without a bit of adventure?”

That prompted a laugh from him as he hugged her arm tighter to his side. They both were smiling as they returned to the small camp.

*******

Ymir scrambled as far back from the edge of the overhang as she could, nervous about the band of grey that slowly began to show against the darkness. “Fuck, but did you guys cut it close or what?” The Malform must be frantically burrowing into the ground or finding whatever hollows or dens they could in order to wait out the daylight.

“We have to put as much distance between us and the dome as possible, especially since it looks like Annie didn’t make it,” Reiner snapped while he unloaded the packs he’d carried away from the cave.

Aw, wasn’t it a shame that the bitch had failed to show up? Ymir always had suspected that Mikasa was the better fighter of the two, and it looked as if that debate had finally been settled. It was just a shame that she hadn’t been around to see it, to watch Annie get taken down after all of the shit the meddling bitch had gotten her into with this grand plan to kidnap Eren. “You never know – there’s that saying about bad pennies.”

Reiner scoffed and went over to join Bertolt, who was once again fussing over an unconscious Eren. “Yeah, as if you’re that eager to see her show up.” He knelt down and reached out to touch Eren’s slack face. “He responding any?”

“A little – I think the drugs are wearing off a bit.” Bertolt brushed aside the thick bangs that fell onto Eren’s closed eyes and frowned, the expression appearing to be more one of consideration than anger or upset. “He’s got to be starving because of the healing and everything.”

“Not to mention we know he hasn’t been out to hunt for days.” Reiner ran his hand down Eren’s chest, which was clothed in a blue long-sleeved t-shirt, the left sleeve hanging limp by his side. “He feels a bit thinner than usual.”

The two of them being a bit touchy-feely with the poor guy when he wasn’t awake made Ymir nervous – she didn’t know what their intentions were, but somehow she doubted they were as truly concerned as they seemed. After all, they’d allowed Eren to be chopped up to get him out of the dome and kept him all drugged up, and Reiner wore that precious bag of Eren’s around his neck as if it were a prize. “Hey, don’t you think you should really leave him alone until he wakes up? Considering what happened last time?”

Reiner left Eren with Bertolt and turned to face her, his brows drawn together and his expression stormy. “Look, you’ve been useful so far so I’m going to give you another warning – back off. Eren is *our* concern.”

She held up her hands in a sign of surrendered and took a step backwards. “Whatever. I mean, I just thought that I knew him better and you’d appreciate the advice, but fine.”

“We know him just fine.” Reiner watched her back away a few more feet before going over to the packs he’d dropped and rummaging through them. Ymir watched with what she hoped wasn’t too much obvious interest, an act that was discarded when she saw him pull out what appeared to be two bags of blood.

“You’re carrying food?” She wasn’t starving yet, but it was always good to know if a food source was readily available, unless they wouldn’t mind if she snacked on the ‘hired help’ outside – the last thing she wanted was to have to hunt down a feral pig or something, which was always a last resort.

“Keep being good and maybe we’ll let you have some,” Reiner told her as he returned to Bertolt’s side and knelt down so that Eren was cradled between them, his back pressed against Bertolt’s chest and sandwiched between the tall vampire’s knees. Reiner handed a bag to Bertolt but kept his attention focused on Eren, a slight frown on his face that changed into an even slighter smile when Eren shifted a little at Reiner’s touch to the unconscious hybrid’s face.

“Yeah, he’s coming back a little. The blood will probably help some more. Let’s see how well it works.” Reiner lifted the bag of blood to his mouth and bit into it, and saliva rushed into Ymir’s mouth as the delicious scent of blood filled the small enclosed area of the overhang. It even affected Eren – he stirred a little between the two vampires, his sunken eyes still closed and his movements languid, but for the first time in hours he was more than a motionless doll.

Reiner and Bertolt drank from the bags quickly, thin trails of blood running down from the corner of their mouths, and as Ymir stared hungrily at them, Reiner tossed the bag in his hand aside and then reached for Eren’s chin so he could press his closed, bloody lips against her friend’s.

*******/////

Blood. Eren tasted blood. He was so hungry, his body *aching* for blood, for sustenance, that at first he didn’t trust it, didn’t believe it was real, and then warm blood filled his mouth and trickled down his throat. He moaned slightly in delight and parted his lips some more as he swallowed, his tongue swiping out for more blood, more of that deliciousness, and was met with resistance, with something slick and warm rubbing back.

At first he was confused, but it – the tongue, someone was kissing him, was it Levi? – tasted like blood so it was fine. It was more than fine. He wanted more blood. *Needed* more blood. Desperate for it, he reached out to keep that tongue, that mouth, from pulling away and was confused when only one hand latched on to soft fabric. Something was wrong, but his mind was so muddled just then, so tired, and the only thing that made sense was his hunger. So he gave in to it.

The taste of blood began to fade away and the mouth against his grew more instant. Eren made a low whining sound and twisted his head aside, only for the mouth to trail down to his neck and softer, less insistent lips to press against his. He tried to pull away but fingers twisted in his hair and kept him there, and then there was that taste of blood again, enough to make his hunger override the bit of resistance he struggled to build up. The blood was so good, so warm… and gone so soon.

He did his best to open his eyes, to see what was going on, but he was still so tired, so numb to everything but the hunger gnawing at him and the budding sense of pleasure building inside from the lips pressed against him and the hands moving along his body. Yet something was wrong, something kept him from just giving in to it.

Hands…. Lips…. The sense of warmth enveloping him from behind and in front…. Two bodies…. Two…. Two Levis? How…?

Confused over what was happening, he redoubled his efforts to force his eyes open and finally managed it after several seconds, his vision blurry at first. When he didn’t see the dark hair and scowling visage in front of him that he was expecting, he tried to pull away, his befuddled mind busy attempting to make sense of what was going on.

“Wha-“

His jaw was held still so he could be kissed again, the other man… Reiner? It was Reiner. Reiner pressed hard against Eren’s mouth, his hand beneath the back of Eren’s shirt as he pulled Eren’s hips closer. Another mouth nibbled at the base of Eren’s left ear and made him shiver even as Eren began to shake his head.

Not Levi. Reiner, not Levi and- “No,” he attempted to say, his throat dry and is voice raspy. He fumbled with his hands, his right one rising to push at Reiner’s chest. “No!” The word came out clearer this time.

“Hush, it’s fine. You’ll like this, you always did,” Reiner assured him as he caught Eren’s hand and held it down.

“I don’t know, he’s beginning to panic.” Who was that? It wasn’t Levi.

“He’s just confused.” Reiner picked up something and drank from it, something that made Eren’s hunger flare and his vision shift into grey. He growled in need and his head jerked forward, toward the bag, only for his chin to be caught again and Reiner to press bloody lips against his own. Without pausing to think, Eren lapped at his mouth in desperation and parted his lips as blood trickled against them, the hunger overriding all other needs. He continued to feed, only pausing to whine when the hands resumed touching him, his body twisting against the touch.

“Reiner, I don’t-“

The last of the blood gone, the mouth pulled away to leave Eren whining again and shifting about as he tried to break free. “A little more, he just needs to get used to us again.” He flinched when Reiner brushed at his hair. “We need more blood.”

“Fuck that!”

Reiner was suddenly pushed aside and strong, bony hands pulled Eren free, pulled him away from Reiner and… Bertolt? He snarled a little, still confused, still so hungry and tired, but the hands were only wrapped around his arms and then his shoulders so he felt… safe, for some reason. Ymir. It was Ymir. Was he angry with her? “Leave him the fuck alone! He said ‘no’!”

Reiner got to his feet and lunged at them, but Bertolt pulled him back. “Didn’t you hear me tell you not to interfere?”

“I’m not going to sit here and watch you rape him!”

“We weren’t-“

“Bullshit! He said ‘no’!” Ymir’s arms were protective around Eren, and despite the furious voices, despite his hunger, he was finding it difficult to concentrate; it was almost as if Mikasa was here to watch over him. Mikasa always made sure everything was all right. Where was she? Would she be here soon? Where was Levi? Why was it so difficult to think? “You wanna fuck him? Do it when he’s not doped up to the gills and fighting back!”

“We’re not going to get anywhere with him when he’s so upset,” Bertolt said. “She’s right about that. Let’s stop here for now – he didn’t attack us so it’s still good.”

“You know we need to make him accept us! It’s for his own good! If the others find him fighting us then they’ll break him!”

Why was everyone shouting? Eren closed his eyes and tried to remember what had happened, what had brought him here, but everything was a jumble in his head – the hunger didn’t help, either. There was blood, was it his? Someone else’s? Was he mad at Ymir? He was mad at someone - why did he feel angry with everyone? With Levi and Ymir, Reiner and Bertolt and… no, not Mikasa. Where was Mikasa? “Mi-mika-sah.”

Rough fingers pushed through his hair. “Yeah, I’m sure she’ll be here soon, Rebel. Just relax.”

“Nu-not funny.” Green eyes caught Eren’s attention as Bertolt knelt in front of him. “Look, we need you to sleep again. It’ll be okay when you wake up.” He cupped Eren’s face, the touch a gentle counterpart to the quick flare of pain in his neck right before the world grew blurry and the sense of exhaustion overcame everything else. His last thought was that he hoped that things made sense when he woke up.

*******/////

Jean gritted his teeth as his horse – which he’d named Pita because of how much *his* fucking ass hurt just then, along with the rest of his poor body – seemed to fucking *hop* over a decaying log, causing him to clutch at its neck to keep from falling off even as new waves of pain jolted through his spine. Riding next to him, Connie moaned, the sound low and mournful.

“Do you think Captain Hange can give us more of those pills? Or fuck, just numb us from the neck down?”

“I don’t think I’m ever walking again,” Jean complained as he did his best not to think about the agony that was currently his abused thigh muscles. He’d thought that the pain was bad when they’d camped last night – it was *nothing* after a few hours spent tossing and turning on the ground, barely able to sleep because of all the weird damn noises around him and the thoughts of a Malform trying to eat him in his sleep. As soon as he’d tried to sit up when that sadistic, short shit of a captain had ordered them all awake *before* dawn, his entire body had cramped in one massive complaint over the abuse he’d put it through the day before and refused to move. Captain Hange had shown up with some meds for him, Connie and Marlo, who were the worst affected, though Sasha and Rico had been a bit stiff, too.

And Captain Ackerman? The sadist had just sniffed while he drank his cup of coffee and told them to get their asses in gear, because he wasn’t going to let a bunch of ‘baby asswipes’ slow him down at all. Jean didn’t know what he hated the most about the asshole right now, that he’d been so wide awake after keeping watch most of the night, had appeared unaffected after the day’s ride or didn’t seem to give a shit about anything other than getting back Eren. What, were they supposed to kill themselves for the sake of one ki- er… well, for Mikasa’s brother?

As it was, Jean was out in the middle of a damn *forest* for *Mikasa*, surrounded by huge ass trees that seemed to go up and up and *up*, so much bigger than anything that he’d seen in the domes, so much greenery and leaves and *bugs* the size of his hands and cats that came up to his knees and didn’t seem that scared of the horses and… and *damn*. It was nothing like in the movies, which yeah, had been filmed in agricultural domes and all of that, maybe with some scenes shot right outside of a dome during those few weeks when everyone believed it to be safe, but this was the real thing. The captains were riding up front in part to keep an eye out for any signs of feral hogs as well as vampires, while Rico was trusted at the rear in case any of the larger cats started stalking them. *Cats*. Jean and Connie had thought that Captain Ackerman was joking about that, until Mikasa had calmly stated that at least the wolf packs wouldn’t be a problem unless they headed farther north. *Wolves*. He’d signed up to fight the undead, not a damn zoo.

Yet here he was, riding a horse that seemed determined to cripple him by the end of the day, threatened upon the hour by the one of the meanest bastards he’d ever had the ill-luck to run across, utterly lost in a forest where one tree looked exactly like another and chasing after *vampires*. All because he couldn’t stand the thought of the most beautiful, enchanting girl he’d ever come across going outside on her own. Well, relatively speaking….

“I’m fucked,” he moaned, mostly to himself.

“Hey, there, I don’t want to know about any inappropriate relationships between you and that horse,” Connie protested.

“Ha, ha, very funny.”

Connie grinned at his joke, the expression turning into one of pain as his own mount tossed its head and stepped aside for some reason. “These things are evil. Do you think Captain Ackerman will let us walk if we ask nicely?”

Considering that the man in question was currently yelling at poor Marlo that if the poor kid fell off of his horse, that the sadistic bastard would personally see to it that the horse trod him into the ground as a punishment for his shitty riding skills.

“I’m…. gonna take that as a ‘no’.” Jean shook his head at Marlo’s frantic attempt to salute the scowling captain while scrambling to remain seated in the saddle. “What the hell is that guy’s problem? He’s always been a bit of a hard-ass, but this? We’re here to help him! He-“ Jean clamped his mouth shut when Captain Ackerman glanced back at him, his grey eyes turning to gold. He managed a weak grin until the captain huffed and resumed searching the trees in front of him.

Connie groaned a little while he shook his head. “Oh man, that was close,” he whispered. “Sasha said that he’s really missing Eren.”

“What does that have to-“

“There’s another one!” Up ahead, Sasha sounded excited and lifted up to stand in her stirrups as she pointed at a large tree in front of her. “Up a bit higher!”

Mikasa took a running leap from the tree she was currently in, treating a thick branch as if it was a broad swatch of ground, and landed nimbly near the spot where Sasha had pointed as if she was part cat. “Yes, I see it!” She touched the marred bark of the tree and nodded once. “It’s definitely claws from a vampire and it looks….” She frowned and peered around the trunk of the tree for a few seconds. “I think it’s pointing northeast.”

“They’re not quite going in a straight line, but they seem to be headed in a general direction,” Captain Hange commented after she looked up at the sky and then back down at the tree. “This gives us some idea of where to keep looking for our ‘breadcrumbs’.”

“As long as it’s not a fucking trap or a trick to lead us around by our noses,” Captain Ackerman complained even as he urged his horse forward.

“I keep telling you that it’s *not*!” The quiet blonde, Krista, practically hissed out the words as she followed after Ackerman. “It would be easier for Ymir to disappear if she really had betrayed… had betrayed you!” Her eyes did that weird golden thing as she stared with obvious fury at the asshole’s back. “And she’s good at doing just that! You’d never find a trace of her unless she wanted you to, so she’s doing her best to help!”

The captain clicked his tongue in obvious annoyance before he looked up at Mikasa, who was keeping pace in the trees. “Well? What do you think?”

Mikasa held her scarf up to her nose as if to breathe through it. “She’s right about Ymir being good at fading away if she doesn’t want to be found, though I still say it’s a bit too late if she’s trying to be helpful now.” She ignored the growling sound that Krista made. “However, this direction… it makes sense.” Her eyes turned a bright gold as well. “I can think of a few places where it will lead that….” She shook her head and paused as she jumped to another tree. “Eren and I always had to be careful when we were in those areas, because they were old territories for the vampires.”

It was odd, hearing Mikasa talk like this, about vampires and things that sounded as if they had happened a long time ago. About what she and Eren had probably done to survive, about that ‘be careful’ – you knew it wasn’t something as simple as stay inside after dark when dealing with creatures like *vampires*. No wonder she was such a strong fighter.

Captain Hange let out an excited cackle. “So we’re headed toward vampire strongholds? Yes!” She even pumped her right fist into the air. “They’re probably taking your cutie where they feel safest,” she told Captain Ackerman. “That would be the most logical choice.”

He hung his head and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. “Listen, you shitty glasses, I will gladly let those undead bastards feed on your liver right now.”

“Yep, the withdrawal symptoms are getting worse – we need to get Eren back ASAP.”

Jean watched in shock as the grouchy bastard actually bared *fangs* at the crazy woman, who merely laughed in his face. Meanwhile, Mikasa climbed down from the tree and back onto her horse, which Rico had been leading along. He managed to slow his own horse down somewhat so that he could ride along with them, abandoning Connie to Marlo.

“Uhm, do the two of them always fight like that,” he asked.

“The captains?” Mikasa tugged down her scarf and frowned in the direction of the two Corps captains who were now squabbling about the best way to predict where the next ‘breadcrumbs’ would appear – whatever they meant by that – while Krista took over Mikasa’s spot in the trees. “Yes, it’s normal for them.”

“I’ve heard that they’ve been in the 104th for a while now.” Rico adjusted her glasses as she stared ahead at the two. “They’ve both got an impressive kill record, for all that Captain Ackerman’s generally considered the best fighter alive.” She cast a wayward glance at Mikasa. “Though his… condition might explain some of that ability.”

“It’s a recent change, so I wouldn’t downplay his skill,” Mikasa remarked. “In fact, I believe the people we’re chasing are going to be in for a bit of a surprise once we catch up to them because of that fact.” Her eyes, which had turned back to their normal dark brown, flashed gold for a moment.

“Those three guys who took your brother? I don’t know, they got away once.” Rico’s frown became more pronounced as her hands clenched around the leather reins she was holding. “But then again, that older guy seemed to shoot something at him that messed him up.”

“Hmm.” Mikasa once more tugged up her scarf, which Jean was beginning to take as a sign that she was either disturbed by something or thinking about it. “Annie didn’t have any drugs when I fought her, so they probably only had so much.”

“That or they didn’t want to risk you getting your hands on it,” Rico pointed out.

“Yeah, not with someone like Captain Hange running about,” Jean added. The woman seemed way too eager to take on vampires as it was, what would she be like if she had some sort of drug that could knock them out?

“What I don’t understand is why are they focused so much on your brother and not you? Why didn’t they try to take you or Captain Ackerman as well?” Rico watched Mikasa closely while she talked. “It’s clear that you’re following after him as if bait, but it’s also clear that they’re doing their best to prevent just that.”

Mikasa stared straight ahead while she fussed with that damn scarf. “Eren’s… special,” was all she said.

Rico frowned in a manner that made it appear that she wasn’t too happy with the answer, and Jean couldn’t really blame her – the woman had gotten some necessary information out of Mikasa in return for getting them outside, but she was still risking her life for what seemed to be a mostly unknown reason. Despite their talk last night, Jean knew that Mikasa was holding something big back from him, something about her and Eren’s past and what was behind this mission; he could only hope that she trusted him with the truth at some point.

“Yeah, well let’s hope he’s not special enough to get us all killed,” Rico muttered as she went back to surveying the forest around them while she rode.

Mikasa didn’t reply, and Jean was left to wonder if it was because she felt the same way… or she didn’t.

*******

Levi kicked at his saddlebag in frustration while he surveyed the camp. “I still say that we shouldn’t be stopped for the night, dammit.”

Hange sighed in what sounded to be frustration as she handed him what smelled to be a cup of coffee. “So you’ve said for about the tenth time already. Now shut up – dinner will be ready soon.”

“I’m not hungry.” He wasn’t, not for the rabbits and squirrels that Mikasa and Blouse had caught during the ride today, but he could stand for some blood between his injuries the other day and – dammit, he had to get Eren back just so he could smack the shit out of the brat for doing this to him. “We could have pressed on for another hour or two.”

“No, Levi, we *couldn’t*.” A rare note of anger shaded Hange’s voice. “Everyone’s exhausted – we’ve got several newbies with us and they’re barely staying on the horses as is. Both Sasha and Mikasa agree that we’re catching up with the vampires so we’re making good time. Give everyone a night to rest and we’ll make better time tomorrow.” She turned to stare at him, her gaze intent behind her glasses, to help drive home the point she was making.

He clicked his tongue a few times before drinking his coffee just so he didn’t have to give her an answer; he knew that what she said made sense, but he just… dammit, he was in a foul mood and desperate to move, to do *something*, so having to sit here all night wasn’t going to help things at all.

“We’ll get him back, I promise,” Hange whispered while she turned back to gaze out over the group gathered around the small fire. “Between you, Mikasa and Krista driving us on, we won’t get any rest until we do.” The right corner of her mouth twitched upward for a moment.

He clicked his tongue again and handed her his empty cup. “As if they’re anywhere in my league.”

“Yeah, you’re pretty nasty when you’re horny and missing your cutie.” She laughed as she just barely dodged him swiping at her head and then went to join everyone else; Blouse and Connie were gesturing wildly to each other while they fussed over the cooking food, while Mikasa and Jean sat not too far away all curled up around each other in a disgusting manner. Marlo, Rico and Krista were huddled together and seemed to be talking about something, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when Hange went to join them, probably to check up on how they were holding up. Levi had to admit that the baby MPs were doing all right for complete newbies out in the wild and that Rico had enough sense to keep out of trouble, while Blouse’s tracking skills were invaluable. They had a clear trail and were closing in on Eren, so things weren’t hopeless. Yet he couldn’t shake this urge to grab all of them, shove them on their horses and ride out into the night *right* *now*.

He’d dreamt of Isabel and Farlan last night….

Jerking his right hand through his hair, he turned his back on the scene before him and took a few steps toward the horses, away from the clearing so he didn’t have to hear any snatches of laughter and happiness and… and *people*. It had been a bit of memory, the dream, of the three of them in the Corps, out here in the wilderness, of Isabel so happy to be free of the domes and Farlan trying not to show how her happiness affected him and… fuck. Levi would never forgive himself for letting them down, for failing them, and here he was back out in the wilderness and chasing after some little shit who somehow had managed to worm his way- No. Levi was furious, so fucking furious right now at Hange for telling him to give someone else a chance, to let someone else in, at Mikasa and her damn shovel talk, after him to take responsibility, at himself for thinking that he could be remotely normal and just fuck some ‘kid’ with those incredible eyes and shitty attitude and…. And he was especially pissed off at Eren for doing this to him, for wrecking Levi’s life like this and then allowing himself to get dragged off by some vampires he had the audacity to-

All right, he needed to calm down since the horses were beginning to get spooked by him being all ‘vamped out’. He took a deep breath in order to try to return to normal and-

“*Fuck!* Malforms!” He drew his blades as he shouted out the warning, his ‘vamp’ vision lighting up with glowing spots as the undead bastards burst forth from the trees to rush at the camp.

He was already cutting one down when he heard Hange cry out from the camp, the sound a mix of rage and excitement, but he was too busy to pay much attention to what was happening behind him other than it sounded as if the others were getting their asses into gear. He fired off a wire to take the fight into the air since it was a disadvantage just then to remain on the ground and met another Malform along the way.

He had to say, enhanced vision was a benefit with fighting these freaks at night; he’d always been annoyed by the night vision goggles in his kit and how they pressed against his face, but his new sight was better than anything those shitty goggles provided. Plus, he could *smell* the things as well, giving him a head’s up when his back was turned. Spinning through the air, he managed to take out two more of them, then landed on a large branch near another one which he latched onto with his claws and fangs. Hunger spurred him onward, drove him to sink his teeth into its neck and drink even as his hands snapped its thin arms to stop any resistance until his appetite was sated. Once he realized what he’d done, he cursed as he sliced his right blade through the thing’s neck and then jumped down from the tree so he could race back to the camp.

He found everyone still standing, if a bit tattered around the edges. Mikasa and Krista were missing, but when he looked over at Hange, she shook her head while smiling. “They chased after some poor fools,” she explained while making swiping motions at her mouth with her right hand, bloody blade still held clenched in it; it took Levi a moment to figure out what she meant by that and he cursed again while he fumbled at a pouch for a cloth so he could clean himself up.

“So everyone’s all right,” he asked while he wiped at his mouth.

“Yeah, thanks to your head’s up.” Hange stuck her blades in the ground and pulled out a cloth herself so she could wipe them before she sheathed them. “Hey,” she shouted, “does anyone need medical attention?”

“Ah, I think we’re good,” Blouse shouted back from where she was putting a bandage on Connie’s left arm. “It’s just a scratch.”

“It better be,” Levi told the idiots. “Because I won’t hesitate to cut off his head if he starts to turn.”

That caused both idiots to pale and mutter to themselves before Blouse waved Hange over. She cackled a little while she smiled at Levi. “As always, such an inspiring leader.”

“Shut it and get your ass in gear.”

While Hange went to check out the baby MP, Mikasa and Krista reappeared, Krista with some slashes in her uniform and Mikasa carrying some bit of tattered fabric in her hands. “Oi, everything all right?”

That damn scarf was pulled up over Mikasa’s lower face, but Levi was becoming familiar enough with the woman to know that she was frowning none-the-less. “I don’t think so,” she answered him, and held out the filthy bit of fabric when she was about an arm’s length away. He scowled at it and refused to accept it.

“What is that?”

“It was on one of the Malform, Sir.” Mikasa stared at him until he realized what it meant.

“Shit.” He was about to rub his hand over his face until he remembered his claws in time.

“Is something wrong,” Rico asked as she approached, her face a bit dirty but otherwise appearing in decent shape.

He motioned to the scrap of fabric that Mikasa was still holding. “Did you notice anything odd about the Malforms tonight?”

“Other than them wanting to tear out my throat? Not particularl…y.” Rico’s eyes went wide as it sunk into her, too. “What, you’re telling me that they’re recently turned? That they’re still wearing clothes?”

“Yes, some of them,” Mikasa explained. “So that means that these ones haven’t been out here very long.”

“You think those bastards sicc’ed these on us or something? That they’re undead watchdogs?” Levi glared at Mikasa as he waited for an answer, both furious and hopeful at the same time; he was pissed off that his squad was nearly killed by these undead freaks, but it also meant that they were getting close, that they were being seen as a threat.

She paused as she stared at the cloth for a few seconds and then nodded while she dropped it to the ground. “Yes, I do. I don’t think they want to waste the time dealing with us directly and either hoped to slow us down or wipe us out entirely.”

Hearing it confirmed just made him angrier. “Well, they didn’t succeed, did they?” He clenched his hands, his claws biting into his palms as hatred and rage simmered through his blood; soon, he would catch up to those bastards and rip them apart. Soon.

“No, they didn’t.” Mikasa met his gaze, her eyes golden and bright; it looked as if she felt much the same as he did just then. Well, wasn’t it just great that they were on the same page for once?

He spun around to face the camp again and forced his hands to flex open. “All right, you dumb shits, get everything back in order *now*! I want Krista, Rico and Blouse to take the first watch, Mikasa, Connie and Hange will take second watch, while Marlo, Jean and I will take the last watch. There’s no telling if those undead freaks will be back so keep your eyes open or I’ll cut off your fucking eyelids, do you understand me?”

Marlo, in the process of kicking some dirt onto a pile of Malform goo, straightened up to give him a proper salute while everyone else managed some sullen ‘yes, sir’s. They all worked to straighten up the camp and Levi was on his way to check on the horses when he heard a piercing wail.

Rushing back toward the fire, he found Blouse kneeling by the overturned spits with what looked to be the charred remains of a small animal carcass in her hands. “What the *fuck* is going on here?” Was it another attack? Was someone turning?

“Duh-dinner,” she managed to stutter out between sobs. “I-it’s ruh-*ruined*.”

He stared at her for a few seconds before he took a step forward so he could kick her in the head – at least, until Hange latched onto his arm and dragged him back. “Ah-ah! We need her, so let’s go make sure the horses are all right, okay? There’s my favorite psychopath, yes,” she crooned.

“Let me just maim her a little,” he gritted out between clenched teeth.

“Nope, not tonight. Wow, you *really* are frustrated, aren’t you? Do you need to go off for a few minutes and rub one out or what?”

It was a little difficult with such a quickly moving target, but he managed a decent kick to one of Hange’s ankles with enough force to make her stumble. “Don’t think you’re irreplaceable out here, you crazy bitch.”

Hange scoffed at that even as her face twisted a little in pain. “Please, I’m your only medial expert *and* your only friend. Plus, how long do you think you’ll last out here with this bunch without me?” She beamed when Levi’s expression became completely impassive in order to hide the utter sense of doom he felt at *that* particular scenario. “Yeah, I thought so.”

He shoved her away once they reached the horses and swore that Eren better make all this shit up to him, once they got the brat back – it was a good thing that they could live for a long time, because one or two lifetimes wasn’t going to be enough.

*******


	25. cannonball

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Believe it or not, think we're actually really close to the end here. Just one or more chapters... omfg.... Well, sorta, you'll see what I mean when it gets there.
> 
> I *hope* to get the next chapter up as usual on next Sunday, but next week is going to be CRAZY, social-wise. And it may be extra long if I cram everything into it. So if it's late, my apologies beforehand.
> 
> Thanks so much for all the comments and kudos!

*******

Kenny Ackerman stood with blatant impatience in Minister Zackly’s stuffy office and gave the older man a cold look while the fool gestured about the ornately furnished room. “But I met with the cre- with Leonhart here, in this office! My people have removed whatever traces they could of the cooperation we’ve provided to our… esteemed colleagues, but that won’t do us any good if it - *she* wakes up and is forced to reveal what she knows!”

Someone didn’t have a very astute grasp of the situation, did he? Kenny fought the urge to flex a knife free since his orders didn’t extend to this fool and he was behind schedule as it was – he needed to leave for the tunnels as soon as possible, if it wasn’t already too late to slip out of the domes that way. “Look, covering your ass is your concern as of this moment. You have sufficient authority to demand that Commander Smith turn over Leonhart so exert it as quickly as possible – he’s savvy enough that he’s probably already expecting it. Once she’s in the custody of the Military Police, ensure that she’s safely stashed away and then wait for further orders. That’s all I have to say at this point.” And all the blathering fool should be expecting, too.

Minister Zackly pushed up onto his feet, his hands flat against the desk and his face flushed. “What about what we were promised? Leonhart said-“

Kenny cut him off with one quick wave of his hand and nearly smiled at the flinch the motion produced. “Not for me to say, and if you want to keep living then you’ll shut your damn mouth about it *now*.” He gave the idiot a hard stare to drive home his point before turning around to leave, his black coat flaring out behind him. He could hear the old fool fall back into his chair, the leather squeaking beneath the old man’s weight, and continued onward, eager to be away from here. Kenny had done what he’d been ordered to do and it was time to move on to the next assignment.

At least this one seemed to have been a success on his part, the loss of a decent work partner aside. He’d provided support to the ‘higher-ups’ as ‘requested’, gotten the target to the tunnels and stuck around long enough to ensure that no one else had followed them out that way. Unfortunately, it looked as if the Engineers had cottoned on to those escape routes, which was *not* a good thing. He had to wonder if the one vampire-hybrid was behind it, but it wouldn’t fall back on him – nope, Leonhart was supposed to take care of her, not him. He’d just been tasked with getting the target out of the Freedom Corps headquarters and slowing down anyone who followed.

And what a surprise it had been to see little Levi appear, blades in hand and eyes glowing like the flames of a candle. Kenny had to laugh, just a bit, at the thought that the boy he’d raised had managed to obtain the one thing he’d been chasing after for so long, this after he’d given up on him. He’d gone off for a few years to take care of some work and come back to find out that Levi had gone all soft on him, had left Tartarus to join the Freedom Corp instead of hardening up some more, and that was that. There was no way that someone who fought Mutates for a living would ever work for vampires, or so Kenny had believed. Then he found out that the boy had gone and latched on to the one person in the world who could turn others into the closest thing to immortal; Levi always had the weirdest kind of luck.

And now that damn fool was going to risk that immortality by continuing to chase after the target, from the little that Kenny had been able to find out. Ah well, the boy wasn’t his concern anymore. Just… would be nice to have a chance to fight him again, without being in such a rush like last time, he thought to himself as he went to check to see if there was still an unguarded entrance to the tunnels.

*******

Okay, Ymir was beginning to consider the idea that she had grown soft living in the domes the last few decades – all this mad dashing through the forests and then spending the day in some sort of cave or overhang was starting to get old, and it wasn’t even a week yet. Not even half a week. Sure, it was great to get away from the stale air and LED lights and the feel of people and bots everywhere, but there was dirt and a lack of running hot water and no comfy beds. Plus, she forgot how much feral pigs stunk until they’d come across a herd of them. Pack of them. Whatever you called a whole shitload of the pungent things. At least the Malform had been happy to feed.

And now they were spending another day in a poor excuse of a cave, in what looked to have been something hollowed out by machines centuries ago but everything else had rotted away. She was tired and growing hungry and fed up with the silent treatment from Reiner – yeah, she wasn’t sorry about breaking up his little ‘let’s molest Eren’ fun-time yesterday. Bastard was lucky he still had his nuts attached to his body.

At least they seemed to be weaning Eren off of the drug a little, allowing him to ‘wake up’ enough that he appeared to be almost like a sleepwalker rather than a comatose patient. He would occasionally mumble something and shift about on Bertolt’s back, his eyes fluttering a little but never opening for more than a second or two. His body continued to heal at a very slow pace, his legs now formed about halfway down the calf and his left arm nearing the wrist.

She watched as Bertolt set him down on the ground and then walked away, over to the packs that Reiner had set aside. As for Asshole #1, he slowly approached Ymir while she drank from her half-empty water bottle. “Hey, I have some questions for you.”

“What’s in it for me?” She smiled at the look of anger that crossed his face, having decided that if they wanted rid of her that they’d have done it long ago – with Annie’s lack of arrival, they probably needed some help.

His right hand clenched in a fist but after letting out a huff of air, he forced his fingers to flatten out. “How about a bag of blood?”

She pretended to think about it for a couple of seconds. “All right, I’m in.” She tossed aside the empty water bottle and straightened up from the wall she’d been leaning against. “What do you want to know?”

“Eren – just how much does he care for that Winger captain he turned?”

Ah, she’d been wondering if it was the short asshole’s name he’d been muttering, along with Mikasa’s. “Honestly? I’m not too sure,” she lied while keeping her expression uninterested. “I know he was pissed off at him the last day or two since they were fighting a lot – the whole base was buzzing with rumors about the two of them and how the captain was dragging Eren around whenever Eren tried to run away from him. In fact, that’s how I set Eren up – we were going to hit the tunnels so he could escape from the asshole for a bit.” The best lie was one that contained a hint of truth, was what Ymir had learned over the years.

Reiner stared at her for several seconds, his expression one that contained a hint of disbelief. “Yeah? Then why did he turn him?”

She waved aside his suspicions and rolled her eyes. “Hormones? Who knows? They were hot and heavy for a while, I’ll give them that, but the short asshole got really possessive afterwards and I think it turned off Rebel. You know how he is, anything more than a couple of weeks and he’s chewing at his own arm to get free. I think it was sinking in to him that the whole thing might last longer than he’d wanted and he didn’t like that.”

Reiner glanced over his shoulder at Eren and smirked. “He didn’t have any problems with us.”

Yeah, not until they ended up being a bunch of manipulative vampire assholes, but Ymir kept that part to herself since she really wanted that bag of blood. “That was also a long time ago – from what I’ve seen, Eren’s relationship issues have gotten worse of the years. Whatever the reason, he’s been on the outs with the captain the last few days.” Which was mostly the truth, but it didn’t mean that Eren didn’t care way too much for the short, grumpy bastard. After all, it was how Ymir had broken him down on the Krista- no, she wasn’t going to think about her lover just then. Refusing to do so was what helped her to keep moving away from the dome.

“Good, then that gives us something to work with.” He looked up at Bertolt and smiled, which seemed to be the sign that Asshole #2 was waiting for since he approached them with a bag of blood in his hands. Ymir tried to not drool or snatch at it when it was handed over. “Now stay the fuck out of our way, you understand?”

“That depends, you gonna get all rape-y again?” She was proud of herself for holding off on the blood to wait for an answer.

Bertolt appeared offended by the question. “We won’t do that!” A slight blush colored his cheeks. “We want Eren to like us again.”

“Whatever.” Ymir waved them away and took a cautious sniff of the bag before biting into it gingerly. As difficult as it was, she sipped at it at first, careful to taste the blood to ensure that it hadn’t been tampered with in any way. When she was certain that it was all right, she allowed herself to feed properly.

Meanwhile, the two were once again tag-teaming Eren, trapping the poor guy between them while holding a bag of blood up to his mouth. “Hey, Eren, you hungry,” Reiner asked while stroking his hands through Eren’s ragged hair. Was that a dumb question or what?

Eren stirred a little, his golden eyes fluttering open as he stared with obvious confusion into space. Bertolt wrapped his arms around Eren from behind and murmured into his ear while Reiner tilted his chin upward and guided him to bite into the bag. The assholes seemed to be using his need to feed today to worm into his good graces rather than a sense of lust, whispering quietly to him while he fed and touching him gently until the bag of blood was gone. As underhand tactics went, Ymir had to agree that it was pretty good.

Eren shuddered when the bag was empty and whined when it was taken away, his pink tongue swiping out for any traces of blood that lingered on his lips and chin. Reiner captured his chin again and gave him a lingering kiss, but before Ymir could complain, he broke it off.

Eren stared at him with bleary eyes, his right hand lifting to push the larger man away. “Reiner?” He sounded an equal mix of angry and confused just then.

“Hey, Lumier,” Reiner murmured to Eren before he dipped his head to nibble along Eren’s jaw.

Pure anger flashed along Eren’s face for a moment, only to crumble to confusion. “Don’t… don’t call me… where’s Mikasa?” He sounded almost plaintive as he asked for his sister.

Bertolt rubbed his face along Eren’s hair while his hand slid beneath the cream colored shirt they’d dressed him in the night before. “She’s off with Thierry – don’t you remember?”

Eren shook his head but didn’t try to pull away. “Wait, that doesn’t make sense.” He let out a low growl and pulled his head away from Bertolt’s. “Shouldn’t… shouldn’t she be with… with Armin and Levi?”

“Who are those two? It’s not nice to talk about old lovers when you’re with us,” Reiner chided Eren, even as he pressed the shot injector against Eren’s neck. Ymir was intrigued to notice that the drug ampule seemed to contain less of a dose than usual this time.

There was a frown when the dose entered Eren’s system but he didn’t pull away. “Armin’s not… he’s a….” He seemed to lose his train of thought and relaxed back against Bertolt. “Levi’s not here?” He sounded upset at the possibility.

“No, should he be,” Reiner asked while he set aside the medical device.

Eren scowled for a moment before closing his eyes. “No….”

“But we’re here, aren’t we? We’re here for you always.” Bertolt tucked Eren’s head against his neck while sharing a pleased smile with his lover. Eren made a grunting sound and pushed at Reiner’s hand when it touched his cheek, but he soon settled against Bertolt and allowed himself to be held close.

Reiner hovered close for another minute or two before leaving to safely tuck away the shot injector. Before he could return to Bertolt’s side, Ymir flagged him down. “So what’s the big deal here? Why are you fucking with the poor kid’s brain so much?” This wasn’t good, what they were doing – she needed Eren to be fighting back if she had any hope of them both getting out of here in one piece.

For a moment she thought that Reiner was going to lash out at her, and then the asshole bit at his lip while he glanced over at Bertolt and Eren. “Look, you think we like doping him up and messing with his head?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer, even if there was anything she could say that wouldn’t end up antagonizing him. “What we’re doing is a hell of a lot better than what the others would do to him if they got their hands on him. We’re just trying our best to make him cooperative without breaking him.”

Yeah, right, because almost raping him and fucking up his head with drugs and shit wasn’t ‘breaking’ Eren; Ymir had to struggle with the urge to smack the asshole just then. The thought that Eren was a resilient bastard helped to calm her down just then. “What’s so special about him?” She held up her hand when Reiner looked at her as if she was an idiot. “Other than the whole ‘he can turn people’ shit. You don’t need to break him for that.” No, they just needed wait until he was starved beyond reason, really.

Reiner sized her up for a moment and then seemed to come to some sort of decision. “You know about his father, about Grisha Jaeger, right?” When she nodded, he motioned toward Eren. “Well, the thing is, back in the day there were vampires working on the whole Mutate outbreak along with humans, undercover of course. Jaeger was one of the humans on the project, and he apparently took the research and ran with it, made leaps that no one else could figure out and injected the finished product into his son.”

“The hybrid formula.” Ymir had wondered how one man had figured it all out.

“Yeah, the hybrid formula.” Reiner touched the bag that now hung around his neck. “Not only does it seem that he may have cured the whole Mutate issue, but from what we can tell, he solved the problem with sunlight.”

“For the hybrids,” Ymir pointed out.

Reiner grinned, yet the expression contained no sense of humor to it. “No, for *all* of us.” He waited for the importance of that to sink in, causing Ymir’s jaw to drop. “At least, that’s what we can tell from the bit of notes that we came across while hunting down Eren and Mikasa. Eren’s the key, so we need him if we have any hope of ever being free of the domes before the humans realize that we’ve been keeping them trapped for the last few centuries.”

“...*fuck*.” No wonder they were desperate to get hold of Eren these last few years.

“Yeah, exactly. So chew on that if you’re thinking of screwing us over yet again, and don’t stop us from making Eren our ally.” Reiner warned her as he took a step toward Bertolt and Eren. “If you want to keep scurrying around in the dark, keep on looking out just for yourself.” Having said his piece, he went over to the other two and knelt down beside them. He leaned forward to give Bertolt a quick kiss, then focused his attention on Eren to run his hands along the semi-conscious man’s body until Eren stopped squirming from his touch.

Ymir thought she was beginning to recognize the weird mix of obsession that the two assholes fixed on Eren any time they looked his way – part of it was affection, oddly enough, but part of it was hope as well, hope of a future where they wouldn’t be trapped in the darkness forever. And that meant part of their gaze whenever they looked at Rebel was an icy determination to do whatever it took to get him to bend to their will, which was a truly frightening mix when you thought to consider it. They’d do whatever they had to and claim they were doing the poor ‘kid’ a favor because they weren’t those ‘others’ who would ruthlessly ground out Eren’s sense of self beneath their heels. No, what they were doing was with a sense of ‘kindness’ – bah, Ymir had to stop dwelling on it before she started gagging.

All she knew was that Mikasa and Napoleon better get their asses in gear, *pronto*, if they wanted to find Eren in his right mind… and before she started thinking a bit too much on what Reiner had just told her.

*******

Levi shifted about on his horse and watched impatiently as Blouse and Mikasa examined the claw marks that Ymir had left them in the tall oak tree above. “Well,” he finally asked after they poked at the scored bark for what seemed to be the tenth time.

Mikasa glanced at the forest ahead and fussed with her scarf. “I think it’s indicating that they’re shifting a bit more west.”

“They changing their destination on us or what?”

Mikasa shook her head as she leapt for the nearest tree and Blouse followed her by firing off a wire. “I’m not sure – maybe they’re trying to avoid something.”

“Isn’t that wonderful.” He left the tracking to the two and scanned what he could see of the forest ground in front of him – it looked like the same old shit, just overgrown plants and dirt and the occasional scurrying animal.

“You think it’s a trap?”

He scoffed at Hange’s question and shot her an incredulous look. “I think those fuckers want us dead, and they’d prefer it happen sooner rather than later so we’re less of a hassle to them.” He tossed a quick glance over his shoulder to the rest of the team. “Hustle your asses together, *now*. No sense in presenting as big a target as possible unless you want to do me a favor and die today.”

“Aw, you always say the most encouraging things, Sweetie.”

He flipped Hange the finger before calling out to the idiot bouncing around in the trees. “Blouse, you seeing anything from up there?”

“Not really, and it’s Sasha, Sir.” She laughed nervously when he gave her a blank stare. “Uhm, you call everyone else by their- ah, never-mind.”

This was the shit he put up with, and why he refused to allow himself to become a commander when being a captain was bad enough. He clicked his tongue twice and then sniffed, his vision shifting when he noticed a foul scent. “What the fuck?”

“There’s large shapes moving ahead,” Mikasa shouted down to them. “It’s feral hogs! Everyone, group together!”

“Listen you shits, cluster around those trees,” Levi barked out while motioning to a throng of smaller oak trees that were growing close together. Hange was already driving her horse toward it, and had snagged Rico’s reins so she could herd her and the spare horses along as well.

Marlo was quick to follow suit, but Levi had to snarl at Jean and Connie to get their asses in gear. “What about Mikasa and Sasha,” Jean argued, slow to get his horse moving.

“They’re fine up in the damn tree! Move your ass, now!”

Krista knocked her horse into Connie’s to get him into gear, and a low growl from Levi seemed to provoke Jean’s horse into motion. They reached the tiny grove just in time and had the horses huddled together when the small wave of huge fucking pigs came crashing through the forest.

Levi *hated* the damn things almost as much as he hated Malforms; sure, they weren’t undead, blood-sucking freaks but they were huge, stunk like hell and they tended to destroy most things in their path. He’d had more than one camp obliterated by the awful beasts, and seen a few friends in the Corps gored by those nasty tusks or trampled underfoot if their horse wasn’t fast enough or by a bad wire move. It seemed that at least once a wilderness campaign that some dumb fuck took it into their head to go ‘hunting’ and paid the price of messing with half a ton of pissed-off pork. The best thing to do was to stay the hell out of their way.

Fortunate for them, the herd seemed more intent on just going on their way, and thundered through the cleared part of the forest. Levi did his best to hold his breath at their passing, and noticed that Krista held her right arm up to her nose as if to breathe through the sleeve of her jacket. Fuck, his clothes were going to *reek* for days, he knew it.

After a couple of minutes, the cacophony of the pigs’ passing died down, though the dust kicked up from their sharp hooves hovered in the air. “Hmm, that seemed like a rather small passel, all in all,” Hange remarked while she removed her glasses to clean them, her face smudged with dirt.

“Passel?” Marlo stared at her in confusion while he tried to calm down his agitated horse.

“Yes, as in ‘passel of hogs’.” When that didn’t seem to clear up the situation, she sighed and shook her head. “Youths these days.”

About then, Mikasa and Blouse – oh, wait, *Sasha* - joined them by swinging down to the ground. “She’s right, it did seem like a small herd.”

“*Passel*.”

“Whatever.” Mikasa shrugged off Hange’s criticism and tugged down her scarf to frown in the direction that the damn pigs had disappeared into. “Some of them looked wounded, too.”

“It was difficult to tell from down here.” Levi leaned forward to rub at his horse’s slightly sweaty neck and thought about the fact that Malforms were known to feed off of the nasty feral fucks while their preferred snacks of humans were tucked away in the domes. “You think they ran into our ‘friends’?”

“It might explain the shift in direction, considering if they had some Malform to feed. That and maybe they needed somewhere safe to spend the day,” Mikasa explained as she swung up onto her horse.

Rico wiped at the dust covering her face and let out a weak laugh. “Food and shelter are two of the most basic needs, after all. Just never thought I’d think of them and vampires at the same time.”

“You’re not going to find any five star hotels out here,” Hange pointed out. “We can improvise with the shelter part because we don’t have any special needs as long as the weather’s decent, but they can’t say the same, can they? And I’m thinking that even if they have supplies, they can’t feed themselves that way forever, and they definitely can’t feed a squad of Malforms if they’re on the run.” She gave Levi a reassuring smile. “It’s all in our favor.”

If that was so, why did Levi feel as if they weren’t making any ground? That Eren was farther and farther away with every passing hour? It was going on their second day out here and he still hadn’t gotten the little shit back, still didn’t know if Eren was all right. “It doesn’t feel that way.”

“Of course it doesn’t to you, you pessimistic bastard,” Hange sighed. “Have a little faith for once!”

“In what?” As far as he was concerned, the only thing he trusted was for the situation to get well and truly fucked up as soon as he thought it was going all right – looked what had happened with him and Eren.

She muttered something under her breath about assholes driving her crazy and kicked her horse forward, out into the forest, and Mikasa took her place at Levi’s side before he could join her. “We’re going to find Eren – I refuse to give up,” she told him with a fierce glare on her face before she spurred her horse on as well.

Oh, he was nowhere near ready to give up. Levi did some glaring of his own as he ordered everyone else to get their asses into gear. He wouldn’t until he had Eren back and those vampire assholes had paid for taking the brat away from him – he was just growing anxious over what shape Eren would be in by the time they got him back, the longer this dragged on.

*******

Erwin rubbed his right hand over his face then picked up his mug of coffee before he continued his conversation with Keith Shadis. “So you think you can round up another seventy-five people for us?”

“That’s how many volunteers have come forward, but the issue right now is getting the permits to allow them to leave the domes for Trost.” Shadis’ eyes appeared even more sunken than usual, probably from the recent stress and overwork. “I’ve argued about how shuttle travel is technically safe during this time of year in limited amounts but I’m getting nowhere.”

It wasn’t as if there hadn’t been emergency evacs of domes before, or special runs for medicine or food supplies, but those situations were few and far between. Erwin sipped some more coffee and wished that he had cause to spike it for a little ‘pick me up’ ala Pixis. “You think someone’s blocking us?”

“Yes, I do.” Shadis ran a hand over his bald head and let out an annoyed breath. “Just how much did you tick off that one minister?” The question came out in a teasing tone, but his brown eyes were bleak.

“Levi had no interaction with the man,” Erwin teased back, but he had to wonder – they truly had no interaction with Minister Zackly at all, so this had to be either the vampires’ orders or someone taking some initiative. Erwin *hated* initiative in situations like these. “Can he really not see how disgruntled the people will become when there’s not enough Corps to defend the dome?”

“Maybe he thinks the matter will be resolved by then.” Wasn’t that a cheerful thought? Shadis shared a bleak look with Erwin before motioning to something off-screen. “I’ll keep working on things here on my end, so see what you and Pixis come up with, all right? Worse come to worst, we’ll put those damn tunnels to use to get the people to you.”

And end up losing half of them to whatever Malforms and vampires that lurked inside of them, but Erwin merely nodded and wished his old mentor a good day before signing off. He took a moment to hang his head and rub at the tension headache building in his temples at everything building up – trying to restore a greatly decreased division, fending off Minister Zackly, keeping the dome safe and wondering what the hell Levi was up to, among other things, when his comm beeped. Wondering what the hell new mess was about to be dropped into his lap now, he keyed the device on… and was surprised when there was nothing but grey and white static for several seconds.

When the screen finally came into resolution, he was shocked to see the visage of Maria’s own Chairman, the reclusive Rod Reiss. His hair and mustache heavily threaded with silver, he stared intently at Erwin through the screen. “Good day, Commander.”

“Good day to you, Sir.” What the hell was a Chairman doing contacting Erwin directly, and on an encrypted channel at that? “Is there something I can do for you?”

“Yes, there is.” The Chairman held up a datapad and played part of a video, a video that Erwin recognized as the footage of Annie’s attack on the compound from the other day – how had the man gotten hold of it? Had it disseminated that far already? After a few seconds, Reiss paused the footage and did something to enlarge it, until a blurry image of a young blonde woman came into view. “I would like to know where this girl is right now.”

It took Erwin a few seconds to recognize the ‘girl’ as Krista; he hadn’t realized that she’d been included in the video since she hadn’t fought Annie. She must have been chasing after Ymir at the time. “Ah, that’s one of our newest recruits, Sir.”

Something quickly flashed over the Chairman’s face, something that Erwin would say was relief. “A recruit? So she’s on your base?”

Erwin paused for a moment before he answered and gathered his hands in front of him. “Sir, I must ask what this is about – I take my people’s welfare very seriously and must admit that I’m concerned about why you’re contacting me so secretly in regards to this young lady.”

Chairman Reiss let out a slow breath and set the datapad aside, the fingers of his right hand lingering over its screen for a moment. “Commander Smith, I can assure you that I have no ill wishes in regards to the young lady.” He was quiet for another moment before looking straight at Erwin. “I’ve been searching for her for a very long time.” Something hardened in his expression as he repeated the last few words again. “A *very* long time. Somehow, I think you understand what I mean when I say that, yes?”

Yes, Erwin did, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he should say anything – he didn’t know of Chairman Reiss by anything other than reputation and wasn’t willing to take any risks with someone so unknown – and the little that was known wasn’t the best. Despite his bland expression, some of that hesitation must have shown.

The Chairman leaned back in his dark leather chair, his eyes hooded as he once more touched the datapad. “Let me inform you of a couple of things you might not know, Commander. A couple of things that I’ll refute if you try to tell anyone else, and of course you won’t be able to record from this transmission. I’m sure you’re aware of the fact that some of my… compatriots are working with certain… individuals who don’t have the best interest of the human race at heart. But do you know what is currently being offered to them for their cooperation?” When Erwin remained silent, the Chairman smiled, just the slightest bit. “It’s a chance at immortality, of living forever with all the blessings of good health and no chances of being turned into those monsters that are decimating our populations. Wouldn’t that tempt you to turn your back on your fellow people?”

“But that’s-“ Erwin found himself unable to speak just then, too many choices caught in his throat. ‘Despicable’? ‘Impossible without Eren’s help’? ‘Short-sighted’? All of those, and much more.

“They’re fools if they think their… ‘patrons’, we’ll call them, will go through with it, at least with all of them, but desperation tends to cloud the brightest of minds.” Chairman Reiss shrugged before he glanced down at the tablet. “And so some of them are holding up the approvals for the transfer of Freedom Corps members to your dome since they know that you’ve angered those patrons.”

Erwin’s hands clenched into fists for a few seconds before he forced them to relax. “And I’m to trust that you don’t have a patron or two of your own?”

Chairman Reiss looked back up at him and met his gaze. “I won’t lie to you and say that I’ve no association with them, not at my level but….” He stroked his fingers along the datapad. “They’ve tried to take away what is important to me. I’ve no reason to go along with their wishes, and to prove that, I’ll ensure that you receive the permissions you need for the new staff to arrive.”

It couldn’t be as simple as that – finding out what was motivating Zackly *and* receiving the people Erwin desperately needed to help defend Trost. Not from a man that Erwin rather doubted he could trust. “And what do you want in return?” Unfortunately, Trost would fall without adequate support.

The older man smiled as he held up the datapad by way of answer.

Letting out a slow breath, Erwin closed his eyes for a moment and hoped that he wasn’t betraying Krista – at least she wasn’t on base at the moment. “Her name is Krista Lenz. She joined us a short while ago.”

The expression was most definitely hope that brightened the Chairman’s face. “Is she well? Where is she?” When Erwin paused, Chairman Reiss’ expression hardened and he slammed the device onto the table. “Do not attempt to hold anything back from me, Commander Smith, not if you want those people.”

To think that some considered this Chairman to be willing to hide away and leave the running of his dome up to his ministers…. Erwin wondered if it was all an act so the man could do what he wanted unnoticed. “The last I saw her, she was well. However, right now she’s outside of the dome on a special mission.” He noticed that the Chairman didn’t seem too surprised by the ‘outside the dome’ comment.

“But she’s well,” the Chairman pressed. “She wasn’t harmed during the fighting, yes?”

“No, she was fine.” Erwin paused for a moment. “She’s had a companion who’s been looking after her – she’s gone after that companion and I don’t expect her to return until they’re reunited.” For both their sakes, he hoped that Ymir had a good excuse for what she’d done to Eren.

“Good.” Chairman Reiss seemed to close his eyes in relief for a moment. When he opened them again, he seemed almost embarrassed “I take it that… well, something happened to her to ensure her… ongoing health. Is it… what those… ‘patrons’ spoke of?”

It took Erwin a few seconds to understand what he was asking. “Yes.” He spoke in a curt enough manner to hopefully discourage the man from digging any further, but judging from his comments earlier, he knew that Krista had been around vampires – and the benefits of that relationship.

“Ah.” Chairman Reiss stared down at the datapad. “She always was such a special child. This will just make her stronger.” He was quiet for a moment before looking back up at Erwin. “Expect to hear about the shuttle clearance by tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“Keep me appraised of anything that happens to… to ‘Krista’. In return, I’ll help you out as much as I can.” The Chairman didn’t say anything about keeping their arrangement a secret before he terminated the call, but that didn’t need to be mentioned since this was an encrypted conversation. As it was, Erwin knew how his word would rate against a Chairman’s.

Erwin stared at the blank screen of his comm for several seconds before he rose up from his desk and went in search of someone who could probably provide him with the answers he wanted right then; the hallways were depressingly deserted just then, the few remaining Corps members busy with repairing the courtyard wall or out on patrol if they were fit for duty. It didn’t take Erwin long to reach Hange’s lab, and he nodded to the two young men who were stationed just inside the door.

So far Minister Zackly hadn’t send anyone to take Annie away, though Pixis had reported that he’d already heard complaints from two other ministers about how were the greatly reduced Freedom Corps supposed to guard such a dangerous threat? When the Engineers’ commander had suggested that his people could take over guarding the crystalized vampire, the ministers had hemmed and hawed, so it was clear that they were already trying to drum up support for the MPs to step in and take Annie away.

Erwin found both the crystal cocoon and Armin near each other, with the cocoon festooned with various electrical tabs that led to a stack of machines and Armin sitting at a computer a couple of feet away. “How are things going?”

“Well, it looks as if someone’s busy trying to erase not only Annie’s workload, but Bertolt and Reiner’s as well,” Armin told him, not even bothering to look up from the computer. “I’d have to say that Annie was primarily in charge of altering the missing person’s log, but they’re busy falsifying their duty shifts to cover the fact that the trio were off during periods when the Corps were attacked.” He typed for a minute and finally turned to face Erwin. “I have logs of all of their changes.”

“Good job, and Annie?” Erwin motioned at the crystal.

Armin’s smile quickly vanished. “There’s no change with her that I can tell – it’s as if she’s in some sort of hibernation, just like Captain Hange hypothesized before she left. If there’s some sort of internal trigger that’s supposed to wake her up, I can’t tell what it is – maybe some internal clock. But that could be years, considering what she is.”

“Yes.” Erwin pulled up a stool and made himself comfortable. “I have another question for you, in regards to Krista.” He noticed how Armin shifted back a little to put more space between them. “What do you know about the girl?”

“Ah, not much since I never met her in person before her and Ymir showed up here.” Armin reached out and began to fiddle with one of the cable leads that was attached to Annie’s chrysalis, a sure sign of nervousness if Erwin had ever seen one. Erwin also noticed how he’d said ‘never *met* her’.

Erwin let him fiddle for a minute and then cleared his throat. “Look, I noticed that Eren and Mikasa seemed to recognize her back when she showed up, and that Ymir wasn’t happy about it. I also know that they take you into their confidence about a lot of things. Now I happen to have a very high-ranked person who is willing to do us favors because of Krista.” He held up his hand while he spoke and made sure he had Armin’s attention. “A high ranked person who is going to remain nameless, yet I can’t help but notice right now that you don’t seem too surprised about that fact.” Armin was staring at him, but more in resignation than any type of confusion or astonishment.

Letting go of the wire lead, Armin glanced around as if to make sure that the other two guys weren’t close enough to overhear them. “All right, I’ll tell you what Eren and Mikasa told me since it seems important.” He tucked back the bangs falling onto his face and chewed on his bottom lip as if buying time to figure out *how* he wanted to put his thoughts into words. “This person who’s helping you, he’s from Maria dome, right?”

That was one hell of a guess – except Erwin doubted that it was a guess. “Correct.”

“And he’s… well, he’s way up there, right.” Armin made a jerking motion with his right thumb. “As high up as you can get.”

“Pretty much.” Erwin folded his arms over his chest and frowned a little. “Why is he so concerned about Krista?”

“Because that’s not her real name.” Armin reached for a datapad and typed on it for about a minute. “Look… Captain Hange figured out a few things with… well, with how Eren and Mikasa helped out Captain Ackerman and Petra, right?” His gaze shifted from what he was doing on the device and waited for Erwin to look back at him. “I’m sure that she either told you or you figured it out as well, since you always seem to know what’s always going on here.”

“If you’re talking about the… ‘added benefits’, then yes.” Erwin did his best to make it seem as if being given vampire or hybrid blood wasn’t that big of a deal considering that he was talking to someone who was very close to two hybrids – he didn’t want to drive away Armin or make him feel that Eren and Mikasa would be used for their blood. “It’s useful, but then so are a lot of other things.”

“Yeah, it’s ‘useful’ all right.” Armin paused in his search to rub at his right wrist. “And you guys also figured out that me and Krista are also helped out by it?”

Erwin had suspected with Armin because for someone so ‘young’, Armin rarely acted like a typical teenager, while Ymir clearly would do anything to keep Krista safe and at her side. “Yes, though I don’t know to what extent.”

Armin nodded as he handed over the datapad. “I was telling the truth when I said I never met Krista in person before she joined up, but I do remember when she disappeared. We were all so grateful that we weren’t in Maria at the time because of the search – it’s never a good thing to come under too much scrutiny.”

Holding the device between his hands, Erwin stared at the article it displayed and read it a couple of times before it made sense; it was from one of the rumor sites and detailed how Malforms had overrun a decent neighborhood, slaughtering several households. One of them contained an elderly couple, a woman and their servants, and missing was a young woman. The article went on about how the household was connected to the dome’s Chairman….

Erwin jerked his head up to stare at Armin. “You’re telling me that she’s related to him?”

“She’s his daughter, Historia.” Armin took back the datapad and shrugged. “Illegitimate, of course, but after what happened to his other children, the only surviving one he has left. Rather funny that she somehow ended up with Ymir, but Eren and Mikasa could tell you that weirder stuff has happened over the years.”

No wonder Chairman Reiss was willing to help out the 104th in return for whatever information Erwin would give him about Krista – what had it been like to see the daughter he’d probably thought dead all these years, not only alive but frozen in time by the gift of immortality? By the very gift that people were willing to betray humanity for without a thought? “This could prove useful to us.”

Armin eyed him warily before turning back to the computer. “I don’t know – I’d be careful about that if I were you. I don’t think Ymir will be happy about it, or Krista that willing to let herself be used. And I’m not too sure that I’d trust her father all that much, either.”

Yes, but Ymir had proven herself to be a traitor and Krista was in need of allies. As for Rod Reiss… the man was a Chairman, so Erwin really didn’t think he needed to be warned about being careful there. However, he just nodded as he stood up. “Let me know if anything happens with Annie or the computer profiles.”

“I will.”

Certain that Armin had a handle on things here, Erwin returned to his office so he could inform Shadis that they would soon have the approvals that they needed – and may have another cause for concern.

*******

Eren lay on a thin blanket spread over soft, musty smelling dirt. He was outside. Was he outside? Where was the sunlight? He could smell fresh air but there was no sunlight, just a cool breeze that blew over his face and mussed the hair falling onto his eyes. His eyes that were open. He blinked slowly and realized that he was staring at a stone wall a few feet away, the grey, uneven stone covered with moisture and a greenish-brown moss. A small spider crept across the surface, its mottled grey color helping it to blend it.

“-get some help, eh? Thought you said that there’d be others.”

“There will be, but once we reach a pre-arranged location. We weren’t certain on the time when we’d get Eren, after all, or if we’d run into trouble along the way.”

“Ha! And fucking with everyone’s communications is coming back to bite you on the ass, isn’t it? Too bad you guys never allowed more satellites to be sent up, right? Talk about hoisted on your own petard!”

“I fail to see why you find this so amusing! If Mikasa and the humans are after us, they’re going to want you dead, too!”

“I’m used to having a target on my head – I’m just finding it funny that after all the centuries of scheming you guys have done, they left something so important to you three and didn’t have a vampire army waiting outside of the dome to pick you up.”

“They can’t risk any evidence of their existence getting out right now, especially with things being so volatile!”

Why was everyone always arguing? He rarely fought with Mikasa, it just wasn’t worth it when it made her so upset and she usually was right in the long run anyway. But Levi liked to fight, liked to argue about the stupidest things… except he wasn’t here, wasn’t he? He wasn’t around at all because… was there a fight? Hadn’t Eren decided to end things? Then why was he still looking for him? Why didn’t the voices droning on sound right?

“-just think they could have given us a damn shuttle or something!”

“What, to risk it being tracked back to St-, to where we’re going?”

They were so loud and annoying. Eren growled as he opened his eyes and tried to sit up, his left hand scrambling against the soft blanket – what was wrong with his hand? “Shut up,” he slurred as he tried to focus on his hand. Where were his fingers? Hadn’t… hadn’t something happened to his arm? There were memories of pain and blood, of fighting but it was all so fuzzy.

The voices stopped and suddenly it seemed as if he was crowded, as if too many bodies were around him; Reiner and Bertolt were practically pressed against him while they helped him to sit up and Ymir hovered nearby.

“My, someone woke up cranky tonight, didn’t they?” Bertolt’s long fingers threaded through Eren’s hair to brush it back from his face and lingered at the nape of his neck for a moment. Eren wanted to shake off the touch, to snarl, but he was so tired. Were they in France? Ymir hadn’t been in France, had she? But Mikasa was off with Thierry or else she’d be here with him….

Feeling confused and somewhat distrustful of the situation, Eren attempted to hunch forward, only to be trapped by Reiner’s arms. “I’m not cranky,” he snarled, upset at how he was being boxed in like this. He went to push at Reiner and remembered about his left arm, his legs. “What happened to me?”

Reiner caught hold of his forearms and pushed them downward while making a soothing sound. “It’s all right, Lumier, you’ll be better soon.”

The use of the… was it an old nickname? Bertolt and Reiner took to calling him it because of his eyes, so why was he annoyed by it now? “What happened,” he repeated, feeling an edge of panic creep in with the anger.

“Humans did it to you,” Bertolt told him in a quiet voice. “Isn’t that the truth, Ymir?” He continued to stroke his fingers through Eren’s hair, much like Mikasa did when Eren was upset.

Ymir frowned for a moment before looking at him. “Yeah, Rebel, a couple of humans chopped you up.” She didn’t look happy for some reason, but she didn’t seem to be lying. “Don’t worry, we’re taking care of you.”

He didn’t… he didn’t want them to take care of him, did he? He wanted Mikasa. Something wasn’t right here, something was off – why would Mikasa leave him alone if he was wounded? “I… I don’t need you, I need Mikasa,” he insisted and once more pushed at Reiner’s chest. “Get Mikasa for….” That’s when he noticed it, the bag that hung around Reiner’s neck. The bag that should be hanging around his neck – the bag that contained his father’s legacy and the last precious bits that his mother had given him. Eren’s eyes went wide has he felt with his left hand - *tried* to feel with his left hand – at his own chest for what he now realized was missing, and Reiner swore softly as he quickly shoved the bag beneath his brown shirt.

Just as Eren bared his fangs and readied to lash out with his clawed right hand, there was that now familiar sting to his neck followed by a new wave of dizziness. “Sorry,” Bertolt murmured as an overwhelming sense of weariness replaced the fury Eren felt, and the world tilted around him. His last thought before the darkness took over was dammit, he had to stop letting this shit happen to him….

*******

Marlo let out a low moan of joy when he noticed that the sun was beginning to set – just a little longer, and the demon that was Captain Ackerman would begin to scout for their nightly camp.

“Is… is it that bad?”

Startled to hear Krista talk to him, he stared at the normally quiet girl for a couple of seconds before answering. “Uhm, well, I think my saddle sores have saddle sores at this point….” He laughed nervously when he saw her smile, dumbstruck by how pretty she was. “Is that funny?” She really needed to smile some more.

“Well, it’s not very original,” she teased. “But it gets the point across.” She sat with ease on her horse and didn’t appear tired at all, despite the fact that she’d been riding most of the day – he remembered that she’d also helped to scout up in the trees a little after lunch. “We should be resting soon.”

“Yeah, that’s just what I was thinking, about how the sun setting means we’ll be stopping for the night soon.”

Her smile faded a little while she looked straight ahead. “Funny, I was thinking about how beautiful it is. Ymir… well, she always told me that sunsets were beautiful, that they’re all these different colors depending on the weather and where you are in the world. I’m so happy to finally see it for myself.”

Marlo wondered if he should say anything or not, considering how this ‘Ymir’ character seemed like such a verboten topic to everyone else. “Uhm, you… you really miss her, don’t you?”

Krista gave him a narrowed-eye look for a moment as if trying to figure out if he was serious for several seconds before speaking. “We… we’ve been together for all these years, just the two of us. I… it’s almost unnatural, her not being here. So yes, I miss her.” She took to staring straight ahead again. “I know she has a good reason for what she’s done, I just wish everyone would wait until they know what it is before they judge her.”

Well, from the little that Marlo could tell, everyone was upset because the woman had betrayed a very old friendship and let the enemy kidnap a friend so…. However, he had the sense not to say anything just then. “So you forgive her?”

Krista was quiet for almost a minute before she shook her head. “I want her back.”

Well, *that* was interesting, wasn’t it? Marlo glanced at her out of the corner of his eye for a moment before he cleared his throat and decided to change the topic. “So what’s this Eren like? From the little Mikasa says about him, he seems like the perfect brother, but Jean makes him out to be an annoying brat whenever she’s not around and Captain Ackerman….” He felt his cheeks heat up and he shifted a little in the saddle before the pain made him stop. “Ah, yeah, those two? I’m not imagining that there’s something going on there, right? I mean, Captain Hange’s not just making weird jokes and stuff….”

The discomfort was worth it to hear Krista laugh for the first time… well, the first time since he’d met the pretty girl, even if it was clear that she was already taken. “You’re not imagining things, no.” She was smiling again while she stared off at Captain Ackerman, who was – surprise, surprise, glaring at Captain Hange about something, probably where they would be camping for the night. “I haven’t known Eren for very long in person, but Ymir always talked about him and Mikasa. I got the impression that she liked him despite herself since she wasn’t used to trusting people, and that it was mutual with him, too. They needed each other to get out of trouble one day and it just kept happening again and again until they became friends.” Her blue eyes grew hazy as if she was seeing memories and not the forest in front of them. “He’s a bit impulsive at times and can be quick to temper, and if you’re one of the few people he does consider a friend then he’ll do anything for you. Mikasa means the world to him, which anyone can see if they spend more than ten minutes together with the two – they’re… they’re such *siblings* with the way they have their private jokes and always stand up for each other. He doesn’t think too highly of himself, but if he believes that something should be done, he’ll push to see it done and he won’t let you stand in his way.” It was her turn to laugh nervously. “Talking about him that way, I can see why him and Ymir fight a lot sometimes, but it’s never anything serious.

Marlo smiled and shook his head. “I can see why Jean thinks of him as an annoying brat.”

“Hmm, a ‘brat’ who’s a lot older than him. That must have come as a shock.” Krista chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. “It can’t be easy, Eren looking as young as he does yet being so old. I know Ymir told me that there were times when she wished that she looked a little older.”

He turned to face her a little better, puzzled over what she meant. “Older? You don’t look… that is….” Should he talk to a woman about her age like this?

Krista’s small smile took on a wicked edge. “Oh, wait until you see him.” She actually chuckled when she glanced back at Captain Ackerman. “I really feel a bit sorry for the poor man.”

Before he could question her any more about what she meant, Captain Ackerman called out, his voice heavy with annoyance. “Lenz! Stop smirking and get your ass up here so you can help Stieger and me scout out our damn camp for the night! And there better not be a single Malform around within a mile or I’m dragging your sorry ass behind us tomorrow – without a horse!”

“Yes, Sir!”

“I keep telling you, Sweetie, if you need some alone time to-“

“Finish that sentence and we’re leaving you here strung up in the trees by your fucking intestines, you perverted lunatic.”

“Yep, a definite build-up in testosterone. Boy, is Eren in for a rough time when he gets back.”

Marlo swore that he heard a distinctive growling sound not only from Captain Ackerman but from Mikasa as well before she kicked her horse into a trot and went off to search for a suitable camp in the growing twilight. Krista seemed to be stifling a smile as she rode off, and Captain Ackerman slashed a clawed hand in Captain Hange’s vicinity before he left. All the bespectacled woman did was cackle in response.

Rico nudged her horse in Marlo’s direction, an impassive look on her face while she fetched her water bottle. “Find out yet why this ‘Eren’ is so special yet,” she asked in a soft voice.

“No, but Krista’s talking to me at least,” he whispered back. “Maybe she’ll feel a bit more talkative later.”

Rico grunted quietly and took a sip of water. They dropped the topic before someone overheard them, even if Connie and Sasha were busy chatting about what to make for dinner and Jean seemed to be staring off in the direction that Mikasa had ridden off into; Captain Hange was watching out over them, obviously paying attention to anything that might be trouble.

Marlo didn’t regret leaving the MP behind, not when it had turned out to be more corrupt than he had suspected, and he’d never thought that he’d have a chance to witness the wilderness like this. So much was being kept from humanity, so many important things, and right now he felt as if he was contributing to fighting back against the creatures that keep mankind ignorant and trapped in the domes. He just felt a bit of resentment that the very people he had decided to help and risk his life with were still keeping secrets from him, such as why exactly they were out here and who it was that they were fighting to save. That was a secret that he and Rico would find out, one way or another.

*******

The screen was starting to grow bleary the longer that Armin stared at it, leading him to believe that it was probably time to head off to bed. He’d spent most of the day in Captain Hange’s lab, working on a couple of projects: tracking whatever Minister Zackly and his people were up to in trying to erase the fact that they’d had Annie, Reiner and Bertolt work for them, studying Annie’s latest condition and doing more research on Eren and Mikasa’s bloodwork. Basically, he was doing whatever he could to keep busy, especially if it meant that he could stay out of the very empty hallways, common room and dining room. It didn’t help that he was really missing Eren and Mikasa.

At first he’d thought it would be pretty easy, letting Mikasa go after Eren without him, with him staying behind to look after Annie and helping out the Corps. It was only after Mikasa was gone that the reality had set in, that for the first time in his life that he was truly alone. Even after his parents had died his grandfather had been there, and his grandfather had made sure that Eren and Mikasa had taken him on before letting go of him. Ever since then… ever since then the siblings had always been there for him, even hunting alone so he was protected….

He rubbed his eyes before he clicked on the ‘saved’ icon and then leaned back in his chair. “I think I’ve had it for the day,” he told Annie. “Last thing I need is to mix up the DNA analysis and when we apply the cure, create a whole new breed of monsters.” He got up from the chair and went over to the chrysalis, which he stroked with his right hand. The crystal actually felt warm beneath his hand, and he swore he felt a sort of pulse in return. “Don’t you think the world has suffered enough? Unless it’s a cute type of monster – maybe some sort of fluffy monster. Maybe something that just tries to subdue you by sitting in your lap all day and cutting off your circulation.”

Feeling tired, he stretched out his arms and lay his head down on them, until he could gaze at Annie’s sleeping figure inside. “Did you ever get tired of being a monster? Not that *I* think you’re a monster, you’re just being what you are, but everyone here thinks you’re a monster, and I know it wears down on you, what other people think. Humans don’t think about all the shit we’ve inflicted on the earth, all the damage we’ve caused, how *we* can be considered monsters. Yet we’re so easy to fling that word about.”

He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the crystal. “I guess what I’m saying is… if you can hear me, is that I don’t think you’re a monster. So whenever you feel it’s safe to come out of this… please talk to me.”

Resting there another minute longer, he enjoyed the peace of the moment before forcing himself away to go get some sleep for the night. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told her as he shuffled toward the door, his voice pitched low so he didn’t disturb the two guards standing nearby.

*******

Hange chewed on her roasted rabbit while she looked around the campfire at everyone gathered together: Connie and Sasha were snuggled at each other’s sides, of course, and Jean was urging Mikasa to eat, which the quiet girl ignored with a shrug. Krista was actually interacting with Marlo and Rico for once, a shy smile on her face, while Levi… yeah, he was being an anti-social shit, big surprise there. Hange gnawed on a rabbit leg while she pondered what to do with her friend – somehow she doubted that he’d allow himself to get drunk while out here so no breaking out the vodka to get him to talk about his relationship woes. Ah well, there went that fun.

Mikasa and Sasha swore that they were only a few hours behind from Eren now at the most – they would lose some time by resting tonight, but they would have more time during the day tomorrow to track the bastards down while they were holed up in some cave or wherever they took to hiding from the sun. At least, they better, because Hange had basically promised Levi that they would find Eren tomorrow to force the obsessed asshole to give up the hunt tonight so everyone could get some rest before a horse broke its leg or someone collapsed. She knew that they’d be back on the trail before daylight tomorrow.

Glancing aside at her friend again, at the way he stared into the darkness as if searching for something, she couldn’t believe how determined he was to find Eren. When she’d suggested that he take a chance on a relationship, she hadn’t thought that he’d get so… so involved. Yet Eren was a good fit for him, between the ‘kid’s’ life experience, only semi-jaded outlook and willingness to stand up to Levi’s bullshit. They needed to get him back, not only because of how valuable he was to humanity, but for Levi’s sake – Hange wasn’t sure how much more loss the man could take.

She tossed the picked clean bone aside and smiled. “So, what’s the plan for tonight?”

Levi finally looked at her and grunted softly. “You’ll have first watch with Lenz and Jean, while Stieger, Blouse and Rico will take the second. Connie, Marlo and I will handle the third.”

So he’d be able to rouse everyone nice and early, in other words. Hange sighed and wondered if she should argue about how the lack of sleep was affecting everyone, but didn’t think it was a battle worth winning – if she was right about them finding Eren the next day, then they should finally get a reprieve once the hybrid was safe. Well, as safe as he could be when there were still a bunch of vampires after him….

“All right, then I guess it’s no sleep for me for a couple of hours. Might as well get a new batch of coffee on, yeah?”

Levi got up from the fire without eating anything. “I’m heading to bed now. Anyone disturbs me, I’ll-“

“Oooh, don’t tell us. Sometimes it’s much more frightening to let us stew in our own terror,” Hange crooned as she shivered in mock fear.

Levi gave her his patented bland stare before he clicked his tongue a couple of times and turned his back to go over to where he’d left his bags for the night. Hange watched him leave and let out a slow breath before getting up herself to brew some more coffee.

Yeah, the grumpy bastard was definitely going through sex withdrawals.

*******

“He’s being really cooperative now. Did you change the dose?”

“I just upped it a little… maybe we hit on the right amount, finally.”

Ymir finished snapping a tree branch and glanced over at the other two, who were huddled together not too far from where Eren was sitting quietly on a large tree branch. He seemed to stare off at the ground below, his golden eyes huge and unfocused, and his hands – well, his right hand and what had regenerated so far of his left – lay idle in his lap. It was odd to see him sitting so quietly, for once not fussing with his tousled hair, not trying to chat with anyone, not scanning the world around him for something of interest or danger….

Nor was he reacting whenever Reiner or Bertolt was near him, whenever they touched him. In fact, he tilted his face into Bertolt’s hand when the tall vampire cupped his cheek before picking him up to resume carrying him while they continued their journey. “You feeling sleepy, Lumier?”

Gah, she didn’t know what made her sick to her stomach more, the nickname or the way that Eren smiled slightly while resting his head against Bertolt’s shoulder. “A little,” he murmured.

“Just get some rest, then. Not too much is gonna happen other than us hopping around for a bit.” Bertolt shifted Eren higher up and grinned when Eren wrapped his arms around Bertolt’s neck.

Yeah, definitely vomit-inducing. Ymir fought the urge to curse and glanced around, only to notice that Reiner seemed to have disappeared. “Hey, where’d your boyfriend go?”

“Hmm?” Busy making sure that Eren was settled comfortably, Bertolt seemed to remember that she was there. “Oh, he’s taking care of the Mutates – giving them some orders for the night.” His arms tightened around Eren’s relaxed form and his eyes flashed red for a few seconds. “Should help with the… problem we have behind us.”

‘Problem’… he meant Mikasa, Captain Ackerman and whomever else had decided to follow Eren into the wilderness – for a moment, Ymir hoped that Krista had the sense to stay in the dome before she ruthlessly squashed any thoughts of her lover. “Yeah, good thinking.” It was because she was so desperate to not think of Kr- to not think that she was focused on Bertolt and Eren just then, and caught the way that Eren’s golden eyes brightened just for a moment.

“Yeah, really good thinking,” she repeated as she brushed off her hands and checked the straps on her packs, anything to keep occupied just then and her head bowed. “So we’ll be moving again in a few minutes?”

“Yes, as soon as Reiner’s done.”

“Great, because all this jumping around trees is getting old,” she grumbled.

“Not like you don’t tell us that about five times each night,” Reiner remarked as he joined them back up in the tree. “If everyone’s done bitching, let’s get going.”

Motioning for the asshole to lead the way, Ymir allowed the two vampires to set the pace and fell into place at the back of the ‘pack’; from that position she could continue to leave a few markers as well as keep an eye on Eren. His head rested on Bertolt’s left shoulder, but after about ten minutes, he opened his eyes to look back at her for a few seconds.

Yep, she hadn’t imagined it back there when Bertolt had mentioned the Malform – that flash of cognizance. She gave him a quick grin and nodded once before he closed his eyes again, trying to silently convey that she supported him, and then schooled her face into the mask of mild annoyance that had gotten her through the last few days.

Really, she should have known better – when had Rebel ever really been so docile? He could be on his best behavior for Mikasa if required, but even then there’d be the usual fidgeting, whining and looks of martyrdom whenever he thought his sister wasn’t watching. Ymir doubted that a few days of drugs and brainwashing would be enough to take him down.

Still, while the spirit appeared unbroken, the fact that he could barely stay awake was going to be a problem. She hadn’t seen Bertolt or Reiner inject Eren with a new dose in the last couple of hours since he’d been so ‘well-behaved’, but if they thought this latest one was working so well, they might be keen to keep him on a regular schedule. She’d have to hope that at least the fact that he wasn’t getting shot up every couple of hours allowed him to be a little more clear-headed than usual and work with that somehow.

And hope that whoever was following them was prepared enough for the little surprise headed their way. Because while being doped up and pawed at wasn’t enough to break Eren… losing Mikasa and that captain of his just might.

*******

Levi had returned from the nearby stream where he’d washed himself and what few bits of his uniform that he felt would dry quickly enough next to the fire by the time they’d leave before dawn and began quietly packing up the rest of his gear. Mikasa, Sasha and Rico shuffled around the camp as they went about with their shift on watch, mindful of everyone else sleeping, and somewhere in the forest there was a damn owl hooting.

His bags packed for the time being, Levi left the sleeping area and went over near the fire so he could grab a cup of coffee; getting by on only a couple of hours of sleep was fine when you were in your quarters and didn’t have to worry about waking up a bunch of sleeping idiots a few yards away, and even better when there was another sleepless… vampire-hybrid or whatever looking to be entertained. Dammit, Eren better be safe and in one piece and waiting to get his ass rescued tomorrow. Of all the fucked-up things that Levi was going through for the shitty brat….

Busy sipping his awful coffee, he noticed that Sasha was yawning and that her eyes were beginning to droop so he picked up a small rock lying near her feet and flung it at her chest. The impact caused her to yelp and jump to her feet, her eyes now wide open as she searched about in the darkness.

“Stay awake, you moron,” he hissed.

“Uhm, yes, Sir.” She fumbled to give him a salute, her cheeks flushed red and her hands shaking. When she noticed that he was drinking coffee, she stumbled forward and poured herself a cup as well. “Just… just another hour.”

He should probably feel bad for pushing these kids so hard, but they couldn’t let those damn vampires get too far with Eren or risk… risk losing too much. It just wasn’t *Eren*, it was giving those fucking undead bastards a chance to create more Mikasa’s and Krista’s, more killers who could go out in the sunlight when humanity was so close to reclaiming the world outside of the domes. Fuck, it might even be more than that, if what Armin and Hange thought was true, if Petra’s… if Petra’s last few days had any significance. So yeah, this was about more than Levi not wanting to be bored at 03:00 in the damn morning or that he’d finally found someone who didn’t annoy the shit out of him after a week or two. That he couldn’t get a particular pair of golden eyes out of his mind for more than an hour or two, and everything else that went along with Eren….

Cursing as he tossed the remains of his shitty coffee aside, he stood to his feet and wondered if he could… he didn’t know, inspect the horses or practice with his claws or *something* until it was time to wake up these lazy asses and get them going.

“Uhm, Sir, is everything all right?”

About to tear into Sasha just to give him something to do, he paused for a moment to find something particularly savage to fault the girl about this time and noticed that the forest was quiet - *too* quiet. There wasn’t any hooting owls, wasn’t any rustling branches or undergrowth, wasn’t any annoying chirping insects or mewling animals. “Stieger!”

As soon as he called out Mikasa’s name, she was responding in an alarmed voice. “Malform, coming in quick! At least twenty!”

“Get your asses into gear!” He tossed back his cloak and pulled out his blades, then shot a wire into the nearest tree so he could hopefully get an aerial view of the attack, and noticed some white blurs coming in from the southern direction of the camp. Aiming his wire in that direction, he hit the tree hard, his claws digging into the bark to help give him some traction, and he cut off the wire so he could leap at the first Malform that was incoming. Slamming it into a tree felt rather satisfying, almost as much so as cutting off its head.

Between him, Mikasa and Rico, they helped slow down the first wave of Malform long enough to give everyone a chance to wake up and get to their blades. Sasha took out one of the bastards on the ground, and then the air was saturated with the stench of blood and rotting flesh. Levi’s hunger was still mostly satiated from the other night so he could focus on chopping off heads rather than feeding.

Using the trick that he’d seen those asshole vampires do back in Trost to knock a Malform out of the air only to ride it into the ground, he took a few seconds to recover his senses before slashing through its neck with his aching right arm. Dammit, that hurt more than those undead fucks had made it look, but his body was already healing by the time he took a few steps away. He glanced around the camp to find that everyone were still on their feet – well, Marlo was on his knees but being helped up by Jean – and the remaining Malform began to retreat back through the trees.

No. No way in fucking hell – not now that he knew what they really were and what he’d missed last night. He shot a look at Mikasa and recognized the same resolution in her glowing eyes. “Stay here in case there’s another attack,” he ordered Hange as he began to run after the fleeing freaks.

“Where the hell are you going?”

“To see if they lead us to Eren,” Mikasa answered for him, busy shooting a wire up into the trees as she dashed off, her Corps cloak flaring about her as if a pair of green wings.

“You idiots, what if it’s a trap!”

Levi ignored his friend and fired a wire of his own to join Mikasa up in the tree. He heard someone else join them and didn’t even look back to confirm who it was – wasn’t like there were many people who could keep up with him and Mikasa. “Go back, Krista.”

“But-“

“*No*.”

“If this is about Ymir-“

“It’s not.” He paused a second to glare over his shoulder at the girl. “One of us needs to stay behind to protect the camp and that’s you.” When it looked as if she would continue to argue, he bared his fangs at her. “You don’t really give a shit about Eren, so you stay. Argue, and I’ll break your fucking back. Now turn around before you slow us down.”

Her eyes burned a furious gold and she even growled a few seconds. “Fine, but you have to give Ymir a chance, you hear me! At least listen to what she has to say!”

“Sure,” he promised – he could listen to whatever lame excuse she spouted before he gave her the same side of the blade he did those two fucks who had taken Eren.

“I… I hope you find him.” Krista didn’t say anything else as she dropped back and returned to the camp.

That taken care of, Levi shot another wire so he could catch up with Mikasa, who was tearing through the forest after the Malforms. “We’re not going to hear the end of it if these things are leading us all around the fucking forest.”

“No, at least two of them are wearing remnants of clothes, just like the ones from last night.” Mikasa didn’t allow her attention to waver from pale, emaciated forms fleeing ahead of them. “I can’t be completely certain, but I doubt that they can be given complicated enough orders such as ‘attack so and so and then lead them on a wild chase’. They’ve never shown that much intelligence in all the time I’ve dealt with them, and that’s-“

“That’s a considerable amount of time, yeah.” Levi clicked his tongue as he landed on a thick tree branch and ran along it for a few feet, only to launch himself at another. Hmm, there was something to be said for this running and jumping around shit, since it was quicker than firing off wires. “All I know is that they better lead us to Eren or I’m going to be *pissed*.”

“When *aren’t* you pissed off?”

Levi clicked his tongue again and pointed after the Malforms. “Just shut up and follow the undead freaks, will you? You’re getting awful mouthy in your brother’s absence.”

He swore that the bitch was smirking beneath that red scarf of hers and couldn’t wait until Eren was back so he didn’t have to deal with her so much.

*******

 


	26. To Feel the Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, sorry for the week delay but things got a bit hectic and this chapter is *long*. It's also the last chapter of the fic (but see the notes at the end). All 300k words of the fic. OMFG. I didn't think this would be so long, but thank you so much to everyone who commented and kudo'ed and bookmarked.  
> *******

*******

“We’re going to need to stop for the day soon.”

“Aw, come on, you mean you *don’t* want to be fried to a crisp? I hear it’s *such* a good look.”

“Ve-very funny.” Eren could feel the vibrations of Bertolt’s chest as the vampire chided Ymir and struggled to keep his eyes closed… well, ‘struggled’ wasn’t quite the word as it would be so easy to give into the exhaustion that weighed down his limbs, that made him want to fade into the greyness which fogged his mind. Part of him was so numb, so *tired*, and part of him… he pressed his right hand against his chest, his breast bone and felt the lack of a small bundle that had rested there for so long that it had almost become an extension of his own body. There should be the yielding stiffness of the leather followed by the small hardness of the key and the tiny stones, not this… this *flatness*. Its lack gave him the focus to push back the grey, to concentrate on the voices around him. Though if they gave him another damn injection he feared that the grey would win.

“Just a little longer, Lumier,” Bertolt murmured against Eren’s forehead, and Eren didn’t have the strength just then to complain or pull away or do anything, really. In fact, for a moment it felt like they were back in that small, bare apartment, in the large bed he shared with Mikasa during the day, except when Reiner and Bert were there during the night when they would burn through the hours in the most pleasurable-

“Hey! What if the Malform don’t come back? It’s taking them a long time, isn’t it?”

Ymir’s loud, tense voice cut through Eren’s memories and made him jerk his head away from the crook of Bertolt’s shoulder, where he’d tucked it into without any thought on his part.

Bertolt made a rare growling sound, and Eren noticed a falling sensation; they were moving quickly, jumping about as if traveling by rooftop or trees. Trees. They were traveling through a forest, so they weren’t in New Paris, he remembered that now. “If you’re worried about them, go on looking.”

“An excellent suggestion,” Reiner added, sounding just as annoyed. “What, you getting hungry?”

“No,” Ymir huffed, “but I do hope they didn’t run into too much trouble.”

“Not likely. Now keep your eyes open – we should be coming up to a series of caves in a few more miles. And try keeping your mouth shut for ten minutes, why don’t you?”

Eren didn’t know what they were talking about, but he was grateful to Ymir for snapping him out of whatever… ‘spell’ he’d been slipping into back there. Whenever the grey had threatened to take over, she would speak up and jolt him out of it, often starting an argument with Reiner and Bertolt in the process. Unfortunately, it looked as if their patience with her interruptions were wearing thin, leaving him to worry about what would happen when they stopped for the day.

His hand pressed to his chest once more, he did his best to push back the numbness, the thickening fog and to make sense of his scattered thought when a familiar scent flooded his senses. He began to growl as his eyes popped open, the world as grey as he felt except for Bertolt, when he heard Reiner curse. The sensation of moving stopped as the sound of something rushing toward them grew louder.

“Damn things have the worst timing! What has them in such a hurry?”

“Why don’t you go see,” Ymir chided him.

“Why don’t we both? Bert, you stay up here with Eren.”

“Be careful.”

“It’s just the damn Mutates.” There was the sound of rustling and then two loud impacts, and more cursing. “Stop!” Reiner took to growling a moment later, but the rushing sound – that of clawed feet moving quickly – didn’t slow down. “What the hell?”

“Uhm, where’s the rest of them?”

Eren attempted to see what was happening, but he couldn’t see much more than Bertolt’s chest and some of the trees around them with the way that Bertolt was carrying him. When he attempted to twist his head, Bertolt clutched him even tighter to his chest. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but it’s not good. Let’s get-“ Reiner didn’t have a chance to finish, as there was a familiar ‘snick’ sound and then something slashed through the air. Eren missed something when Bertolt cried out Reiner’s name, and then they were moving again, jostling steps that made him grit his teeth. He dug his claws into Bertolt’s arm and struggled to get his body under control, to do something, as Bertolt came to such a sudden halt that made them teeter about for a few seconds.

“Give me Eren.”

The foreign voice, so deep and sounding utterly furious, jolted through Eren and caused his already recalcitrant body to refuse to obey him – he couldn’t move, couldn’t understand what Bertolt said in response as he struggled to place it. He knew it. He *knew* it. The memory was just there, hazed by the drugs and the past and-

“Then I’ll just fuck you up until you’re a shitty puddle of goo and take him!”

Levi. It was Levi. Levi was here, wherever here was. Eren breathed in as deeply as he could and even then barely picked up the man’s scent, past Bertolt’s and the trees and the background of the forest. Levi. The grey lifted a little more and he slashed his right claws along Bertolt’s chest as he lunged for the asshole’s throat-

Something sharp was driven into the base of his neck, right above his spine. It felt like a burning spike that sent white sparks of agony through his nerves, and then the grey took over with the vengeance. His last thoughts were that Levi was here and then there was nothing.

*******

Levi kept the four remaining Malforms in his sights as they tore through the forest, leaving just enough distance between them that those asshole vampires shouldn’t have too much of a warning for the shitstorm that was about to arrive. They’d killed another Malform to give these undead fucks some ‘added’ incentive, and he had to say that he’d never seen the creatures so terrified; Eren had explained to him how the older ones tended to avoid Eren and Mikasa, and Levi had to say that if these fucks slipped away that he doubted they’d ever get within a thousand feet of a hybrid again.

“It can’t be much longer – the sun will be up in less than an hour,” Mikasa said as she ran beside him. “Vampires don’t like cutting things that close.”

“Just as long as these shitty bastards aren’t leading us on a wild chase.” Levi glared at the pale forms racing ahead of them and promised to tear off all of their limbs before he chopped off their heads if that was the case.

“It’s not, I noticed a couple of the signs that Ymir’s been leaving us along the way.” Mikasa’s mouth twisted into a grim line above the edge of her scarf; if Levi was any judge, he’d say that she wasn’t too happy about the help they were receiving from a back-stabbing bitch who couldn’t seem to make up her mind on which side she really was on, and couldn’t say that he blamed Mikasa.

He motioned for her to be quiet so they didn’t give themselves away and they continued chasing after the Malforms, which put on a sudden burst of speed. When he picked up on an odd scent that made his fangs descend and his eyes begin to glow, he couldn’t help but smile in anticipation.

They slowed down a little to try to mask their approach and could hear muffled voices ahead. Levi and Mikasa exchanged glances as they crept forward, and once they cleared a particularly large specimen of oak they could see two shapes on the ground and what looked to be another figure up in another tree. It was when Levi caught sight of a tangled thatch of dark brown hair that he raised his left arm and fired off a wire so he could rush into action.

Mikasa muttered something behind him but quickly fired off a rappelling dart as well; he left it to her to deal with the two vampires on the ground while he went after Eren. It took two wires to catch up to the fleeing vampire – Bertolt – but he managed to cut him off before he got too far away.

Landing in front of the asshole, he quickly noted how the tall vampire carried what looked to be an unconscious Eren – at least the brat appeared to be in mostly decent shape, except for his left foot. Still, Levi wasn’t used to seeing Eren so still like that, so… so passive.

“Give me Eren,” he ground out while struggling to hold back the need to tear into this asshole – as long as Bertolt held onto Eren, fighting was going to be difficult.

“That’s not going to happen!” Bertolt bared his fangs and took a step backwards. “We’re not going to let him go this time – he belongs with us.”

Some people just had to learn the hard way. “Then I’ll just fuck you up until you’re a shitty puddle of goo and take him!” The asshole couldn’t hold onto Eren if he didn’t have any arms.

Levi had just taken a step forward when it seemed as if Eren had snapped out of whatever catatonic state he was in and finally had gotten back to normal since he started snarling and lashing out at Bertolt with his right hand. Just when it looked as if he was going to take a chunk of the asshole’s throat with his own teeth, Bertolt swore and shoved Eren away long enough so he could fumble something out of his left pants’ pocket and then slam it into the back of the brat’s neck.

Not fast enough to stop that, Levi was there to pull a suddenly limp Eren off of a bleeding Bertolt. “What the hell?”

The asshole managed to look guilty even as he snatched futilely at Eren. “We were doing fine until you showed up, dammit! Now it’ll be that much harder!” When he failed to retrieve Eren, he slashed at Levi’s face.

Fuck. Levi had about three seconds to backpedal and dump Eren’s unconscious ass against the thick trunk of the tree and hope that the pain in the ass didn’t tumble over and fall over thirty feet to the ground. Then he had to kick a shitty vampire away from said pain in the ass, since Bertolt was still intent on grabbing Eren.

Not giving the asshole much time to recover, Levi followed up quick slash to the stomach that drew blood and then an elbow strike that broke several ribs; he still had his blades on his hips but even though Bertolt had a height advantage on him, Levi found out that he was the faster and more vicious fighter of the two. Bertolt landed a couple of blows and slashes on him, but Levi would mostly duck beneath his longer reach and end up close to do the most damage – damage he was only too happy to inflict after everything these assholes had done to his personal squad, after what they had done to his headquarters, after they had taken Eren away from him. Oh, was he going to *enjoy* this.

He had just landed a kick hard enough to do some serious damage to the asshole’s spleen, sending Bertolt staggering backwards and nearly falling off of the large branch, when the vampire coughed up blood. Steam rising from the myriad wounds that Levi had inflicted upon him, he nearly fell to one knee as he shook his head back and forth. “Reiner!”

Levi flexed his claws and prepared to lunge forward for the killing blow, but the shitty vampire stumbled over the edge of the branch, dropping to the ground in an inelegant heap. As he watched, the blond vampire, Reiner, called out the fallen vampire’s name as he shoved Mikasa aside and staggered toward Bertolt to half pick him up and then go off.

“Dammit.” Levi whirled around to retrieve Eren, unwilling to trust that those assholes had given up the fight as easy as that – yeah, they were getting their asses kicked and it was almost daylight, but he’d trust Erwin not to be busy plotting something before he’d believe that those undead fuckers had given up when Eren was concerned. Speaking of the brat….

Eren still appeared completely out of it, but he stirred a little when Levi bent down to pick him up, his face turning toward the bit of blood that stained Levi’s left sleeve. “Oi! You in there, you little shit?” He gave Eren’s face a light slap, concerned about the slight hollows of his cheeks; when was the last time Eren had fed properly?

It took a moment for Eren to open his eyes, their usual golden color appearing hazy and his pupils blown. He stared at Levi for several seconds before attempting to talk. “Lehvaaah.”

Oh, someone had been given the good shit, hadn’t they? “Close enough,” Levi sighed as he leaned over to pick up the brat, a frown forming when he noticed how limp Eren’s muscles were and how he didn’t react to being manhandled. “What were those bastards doing to you?”

“Nnn… touchnngg.”

If that was an actual answer and not just drug-induced gibberish, Levi was pissed as *hell* that he hadn’t gutted both those assholes as soon as he’d come across them. As it was, he grit his teeth together while he draped Eren over his shoulder and fired off a wire so they could rejoin Mikasa on the ground.

The sight waiting for him when he touched down was almost comical; Mikasa was chasing after Ymir, who seemed more interested in keeping out of Mikasa’s way than fighting the furious woman. “Look, I didn’t have a fucking choice!”

“You betrayed him, it doesn’t matter!” Mikasa lunged at Ymir, her claws barely scraped along the taller woman’s back. “I told you what would happen if you ever hurt him!”

“Dnnnn-“

“What was that? You better not be drooling down my back or I will kick your ass even if you can’t feel much of anything right now,” Levi warned Eren as he helped to settle the poor bastard into more or less an upright position by draping Eren’s right arm over his shoulder. Eren’s eyes fluttered open as his head lolled to the side, but he seemed to be staring at his sister.

“Doonnn… Ymmrrr.”

“Yeah, we know not to trust her – give your psycho sister another minute and the bitch will be dead.”

“Doonn’tt.”

Okay, that was unexpected. Levi rubbed a rather dirtier than he’d like hand over an equally dirty face and sighed. “Did you just say ‘don’t’ in regards to killing Ymir?”

“…yeaah.”

“Any chance it’s the damn drugs talking?”

Even doped out of his increasingly dubious mind, Eren managed to summon a bit of annoyance in lieu of speaking anymore before closing his eyes and slumping against Levi’s side.

“Yeah, I thought so.” Levi hitched the damn brat a bit closer before turning back to the… hell, he didn’t know what it was going on before him. “Oi! Stieger!” Well, no need to call her that anymore, but it seemed weird to call her ‘Ackerman’, too. “Your brother wants the backstabbing bitch to live, okay? So stop being so psycho.”

Mikasa finally seemed to realize that she had an audience, and once Levi had her attention, gave up on trying to behead Ymir in favor of rushing toward him – well, toward Eren. “Eren! Oh – what happened to you?” She nearly knocked Levi over as she threw her arms around Eren.

The poor brat managed a soft grunt and buried his face in the crook of Mikasa’s neck, but couldn’t seem to get his body to work to do much else. “That fucker Bertolt shot him up with something to keep him from fighting back,” Levi explained when Mikasa actually began to cry.

Ymir had taken a few careful steps forward and nodded. “Yeah, they’ve been dosing him pretty regularly ever since we left the dome. I don’t know what it is, but it knocks him out and messes with his head.” She flinched a little when Levi shot her a nasty glare. “Hey, I wasn’t giving him the shit.”

“No, you just handed him over to the assholes who did.”

She flinched again at the accusation before she shrugged. “It was hand him over or lose Krista and Maria dome, so I did what I had to.” She threw her hands up in the air before Levi could say anything else, while Mikasa kept fussing over Eren. “Look, I know I fucked up, okay? But they had me cornered and I didn’t see a way out. I just… I didn’t think it would be so bad. I didn’t think they’d fuck with Eren like they did or that they’d try to destroy the Corps.”

They could argue all fucking day about how badly Ymir *had* fucked up but it wouldn’t do them much good – what was done was done. For some damn reason, Eren didn’t want her dead so they’d keep her alive for now, but that didn’t mean they’d trust her ever again. “How long does this shit last? The stuff they gave him.” Eren was allowing Mikasa to comb fingers through his hair and pat his face as if he was a wayward child returned to his mother – that shit just wasn’t right. Levi tugged Eren a bit closer and narrowed his eyes when Mikasa glared.

“It usually lasts a few hours at a time, depending on the dose. But if Eren was fighting back, they might have had something stronger on hand for an emergency since he’s really out of it right now.” Ymir began to fidget as she hopped from foot to foot. “Look, I appreciate that I still have my head right now, but the sun’s going to come up soon.”

“Then find a nice hole to hide in and be thankful to my brother for the rest of your miserable life,” Mikasa spat at her, sounding the nastiest that Levi had ever heard her speak.

For a moment he was tempted to agree with Mikasa, but it just wasn’t practical. “No, she’s coming with us.” When Mikasa turned toward him with obvious indignation, he held up his free hand. “She’s the only one who knows what happened to Eren these last few days, as well as might have a clue what those assholes are up to and what they want. She comes with us for now, so give her your cloak and whatever else she needs to survive out in daylight.” He thought about it for a moment. “That is possible, right?” As a working theory, it should – the Corps’ cloaks had UV protection for the times when the solar radiation was still a little high… or for when they *thought* the radiation was still high but they wanted to push their time outside a little longer.

Mikasa’s face was set in a furious glower as she shrugged off her cloak. “It won’t be comfortable for her, but as long as direct sunlight doesn’t touch her skin, she’ll survive. *Right*?”

“Yeah, it’ll be like a fucking walk in the park.” Ymir sighed as she accepted the cloak and then went to investigate the pack or two that had been tossed aside during the fight. “Maybe I can find something of use here….”

“Any chance they left the shit they injected Eren with behind,” Levi asked as he shifted Eren a little closer. The brat murmured something and sounded half-asleep.

“I doubt it – Reiner usually carried it on him.” Ymir dug through a blue pack and pulled out some spare clothes. “He never let me get close to it.”

“Imagine that, someone not trusting you,” Mikasa commented in a bitter tone.

Wasn’t it going to be such fucking fun, traveling back to the camp with these two?

“mm baagh.”

Levi brushed back the tousled hair falling onto Eren’s face and sighed. “I hope that shit burns through quickly, because you sound like you’re talking with a mouthful of mush, which is disgusting. Now, what was that again?”

Eren fumbled about with his left hand, which Levi noticed was missing the top half of its fingers. “Muh baagh.” He seemed to be trying to touch his stomach or something.

Mikasa stared at him for a few seconds and then gasped before she reached into the white shirt he was wearing.

“Hey! Stop gro-“

Levi didn’t get a chance to finish yelling at the bitch for over-stepping her boundaries when she let out a loud moan and whirled in the direction where Reiner and Bertolt had fled. “We have to go after them! They-“

Ymir gave up on her rummaging to hold up something in her left hand. “If you’re freaking out over Rebel’s pouch, don’t. I have it right here.” She let the small bag fall from her hand, dangling from what appeared to be a broken string. “Reiner had it, and I snatched it as soon as you guys showed up. Figured that there was a chance he might run if the fight didn’t go his way.”

Mikasa lunged at Ymir and swiped the bag from her. “That’s what you two were fighting about, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, before you gave him something else to worry about.” Ymir didn’t seem offended that Mikasa didn’t thank her for saving the bag; Mikasa turned her back on the vampire and quickly knotted the broken cord so it could be hung around a neck once more. When that was done, she approached Eren to show him what she had.

“See? It’s all right, I have it now.” She offered him a reassuring smile.

For the first time since they’d found Eren, a hint of light shown in Eren’s eyes. His left hand shook as he reached for the bag, but it fell away after a few seconds.

“I’ll hold onto it for now, okay?” Mikasa waited until Eren nodded to slip the bag over her head. “Just until you’re stronger.”

“’kay,” Eren sighed. He slumped a bit more, leaving Levi with the impression that he no longer had the energy to stand, even if someone was mostly supporting him. About to lower him to the ground, something occurred to Levi.

“Hey, hold him up for a minute, will you,” he asked Mikasa.

“Why?”

“We need to check him for trackers,” he explained as he handed him off. “What are the chances of those assholes slipping a tracking device on Eren,” he called out to Ymir, who was once more digging through the packs to find something to help her ward off the sun.

She paused a moment to consider the question before shrugging. “I didn’t see them do it, which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Sorry.”

For someone who didn’t want to be killed, she wasn’t proving that helpful with the information. Still, Levi did a quick check of a dazed Eren, patting him down while Mikasa held him propped up, running fingers through his hair and feeling about his clothes. “I’m not finding anything,” he announced after a couple of minutes.

Mikasa gently shifted Eren back into Levi’s arms. “I’ll search the bags to see if there’s anything of interest and then we need to return to camp; while the sun will rise soon, I don’t trust that those two won’t find some way to come looking for us as soon as the sun goes down or maybe even do it sooner. They fled too quickly.”

Wasn’t that a cheerful thought? Levi grunted in acknowledgement and held onto Eren for a moment before noticing that the poor brat was basically dead on his feet; the drugs had mostly overcome whatever struggle he’d put up against them. Lowering him slowly to the ground, Levi waiting until Eren was sitting huddled with his knees bent and his arms and head resting on top of them. Figuring that the drugs were really going to knock the brat out any moment now, Levi removed his cloak and draped it over Eren’s shoulders to keep him warm while he helped Mikasa search through the abandoned packs before they returned to the camp.

Since Eren’s eyes were closed, he thought the brat was out of it and so was startled when his left arm was grabbed. “The fuck?”

“…don’go.”

The words were still slurred and rather faint, but Levi had less trouble understanding them than some of the others. He allowed himself a slight smile as he ran his fingers through Eren’s tangled mess of hair. “You’re the one who goes away, you little shit, not me. Don’t worry about me. We’ll be leaving together in a few minutes.”

He continued to work on the tangles until Eren let go of his arm, almost a minute later. Eager to be away from here before any more shit happened, he left Eren’s side with the intent of keeping his word and them leaving as soon as possible.

*******

“Dammit, I said to have the horses ready by now! And why isn’t the fire out?”

Captain Hange yelled at Connie and Sasha who were huddled around the low burning fire, busy brewing one last pot of coffee to get them through what was probably going to be a very long day. Meanwhile, Marlo and Rico hurried to herd the riding horses together while Jean finished putting the last of the bags on one the pack horses. All the while, the usually easy-going captain glared at them, doing a damn good impersonation of Captain Ackerman.

Marlo understood that she was good friends with the foul-tempered bastard – according to Rico, they’d been in the Corps together for years. Everyone was worried about Captain Ackerman and Mikasa, especially Jean and Krista, so that didn’t give the older woman the right to be such… such a *bitch* when all of them were on edge, uncertain if there would be another attack from… well, anything at any minute or if they would ever see their companions again. While they’d faced danger several times already between some close calls with feral cats, the pigs the other day and now the two late night Malform attacks… this was the first time that Marlo truly realized that not all of them might not make it back.

He scrubbed his hand over his face and felt the rough scrape of uneven stubble beneath his fingertips; somehow he doubted that he’d have much time to shave the meager beard away today. “And people think that MPs are lazy….”

“Yeah, well you guys are about as far from the MPs as you can get, if you haven’t noticed,” Rico remarked in a remarkably dry tone. “You’re not even wearing the uniform anymore.”

Marlo let out a weary sigh and stepped away from the horses. “We sorta went from wearing horses to riding them. Not sure it’s a fair trade.”

“Never understood the whole symbolism behind that, to be honest. Wings I get, and roses have always been prized. But some weird horse?”

He gave the sardonic woman a shy smile as they left Jean to brood with the horses and rejoined the small group by the now smoking fire. “Ah, I never understood it either.”

“Big surprise there.” He winced at the jab against his intelligence and let it slide, since he was certain that Rico would just come back with something even more scathing.

They had just rejoined the others when Krista leapt up from the log she’d been sitting on and jumped at the nearest tree, using her claws to climb up it with almost too quickly to track. “Someone’s coming!”

Since the sun had been up for about an hour, that meant it *couldn’t* be any more Malforms… but things had been weird enough lately that who knew for certain. Marlo looked up at the trees with a mix of excitement and dread as he heard the rustle of branches from what sounded to be something coming in fast.

“You better have those damn horses ready, you shitty glasses!”

Captain Hange broke into a raucous laughter as she jumped up and down. “Of course, you sadistic psychopath! Anything for my sweetie!”

Marlo could finally make out what appeared to be three fast moving shapes jumping through the tree branches: Mikasa, Captain Ackerman with someone draped over his back, and another figure wearing the green Corps half-cloak with the hood pulled over their head.

“So you found your cutie,” Captain Hange asked as the three figures hopped down to the outskirts of the camp; everyone rushed forward to meet them.

“Yeah. He’s pretty out of it, seems those fucking assholes were doping him up to keep him from fighting back. They managed to escape so we need to get the fuck away from here, ASAP.” Captain Ackerman didn’t pause for anyone, he just headed straight for the horses. All Marlo could see of the much sought after Eren was a bit of tangled dark brown hair since the rest of him was covered by the captain’s green cloak – oh, and his… fuck, what was wrong with his hands and feet? They looked… had he lost the tips of his fingers and toes?

“Levi! Dammit, let me take a look at him!” Hange hurried after him, while Jean rushed toward Mikasa and gave her an almost desperate hug.

While that went on, everyone stared at the stranger completely covered in the cloak and even gloves. Krista took a hesitant step toward her and held out her hand. “Ymir?”

“Heya, darling.” The mysterious figure chuckled a little and shifted about. “Long time no see, right?”

So this was Ymir, the vampire friend who had betrayed Eren. Marlo was more than shocked that she’d been allowed back here, considering how much vitriol had been associated with her name in the last few days.

Krista sobbed a little and took a step toward the cloaked woman. Just when Marlo thought that she was going to throw her arms around Ymir’s neck, she pulled back her right hand… and punched the other woman with what looked like a lot of force in the stomach.

“Huh, nice,” Rico commented.

Ymir made a choking sound and bent forward, the hood of the cloak shifting enough to reveal that the upper part of her face was covered by a loosely tied piece of cloth. “You left me,” Krista hissed. “After all those promises, you left me!”

“I… ah… you….”

“*Don’t*,” Krista told her. “Not now. We’ll talk about this later!” She bent down to help Ymir straighten up and fussed with her hood. “Look at you! What are you doing out in the sun, you idiot!”

“Like… have a fuckin’… choice,” Ymir stammered out. She rested her mostly covered face against Krista’s shoulder for a moment. “Sorry.”

“I’m sure you are.” Krista sighed and slid a hand inside the hood of the cloak for a moment. “Lots of groveling, you know. And things have to change – that’s just for starters. And don’t think I’m finished with punching your fool ass.”

“I know.”

“It’s all so very touching,” Rico drawled as she went for her own horse. “I can’t believe that they’re trusting her again.”

Marlo didn’t say anything, since he’d grown to like Krista. Also, it was kind of difficult to speak over the ruckus that the two captains were making.

Captain Ackerman had managed to get Eren up onto his own horse, though from the looks of how she was hovering about and glaring, Mikasa wasn’t too happy about that. What had the short man yelling now was the way Captain Hange was stalking about with some sort of syringe in her right hand.

“I’m telling you, let me take a damn blood sample! If they’ve been dosing him with something, I need to try to figure out what it is and work up some type of antidote!”

“Like he hasn’t been fucked with enough that you want to do some of your shitty, perverted tests on him now, too? Just leave him the fuck alone!”

“It’s just a damn blood sample,” Captain Hange practically shrieked. “And if you want to talk perverted, let’s-“

The cloaked figure on the horse stirred a little, causing both captains and Mikasa to rush forward and fuss over him, with a huge grin breaking forth over Captain Hange’s face. “See! He said it’s fine!”

“Yeah, because he’s so drugged that-“

“Just let her do it,” Mikasa muttered as she reached up to run her hand along her brother’s bowed back. “We’re wasting daylight with all of this arguing!”

Captain Ackerman looked as if he wanted to yell some more, but instead he just narrowed his eyes, which had taken to glowing, and nodded at Captain Hange. She made a happy humming sound as she rolled up the sleeve of Eren’s white shirt and wiped the crook of his arm clean before she began to draw blood. “Just a few more seconds, and it’ll be done,” she crooned. “I’ll take another sample or two later on to see how his body is processing it naturally, and can work on it later on.”

“What?” Captain Ackerman pressed his fingertips to the bridge of his nose before he shook his head. “No, I’m not even-“ He waited until Captain Hange was finished and then shoved her out of the way. “We’re going. I don’t want to hear any shit about anyone getting tired or needing to do crazy shit, or *someone* being fried by sunlight. Tough shit. Suck it up,” he bitched as he swung up in the saddle behind the seemingly unconscious Eren.

“Ooh, three shits in about thirty seconds, you know it’s bad. Better do as the grumpy man says, kiddies.” Captain Hange tucked the vial of blood into one of the pouches on her belt before she practically ran to her own horse.

Marlo noticed that Ymir chose to ride with Krista, which seemed to make sense since the vampire needed to stay covered up and everyone else was ignoring her. He decided to ride next to them, just in case the vampire proved not to be trustworthy after all. Since his attention was on the two women, it took him a moment to realize what direction they were headed in – and it seemed he wasn’t the only one to slowly figure it out, either.

“Ah, aren’t we headed in the wrong direction,” Rico called out after a couple of minutes.

“No.” Captain Ackerman didn’t seem willing to elaborate any more than that; he glared ahead at the forest as if it annoyed him on some deep, personal level, his left arm wrapped around Eren’s waist to hold the unconscious man pressed against his chest.

Rico looked more than a little annoyed herself at the moment. “So what, you finally get the kid you’ve been after, but you bring back the traitor as well and we’re *not* going home?”

“Hey!” Ymir called out from her spot on the back of Krista’s horse.

Captain Ackerman did that clicking thing with his tongue that he always did when he was either pissed off or felt that he was dealing with idiots. “Ymir’s here on sufferance since Eren said that she gets to live. One wrong move on her part and she’s dead.”

“Love you too, Napoleon,” Ymir muttered.

“Not helping things,” Mikasa warned. “I don’t care what you did *after* you stabbed my brother in the back, but-“

“Uhm, can we get back to the fact that we’re not headed toward the dome,” Connie called out as he glanced between Ymir, Rico and Mikasa with a great deal of evident apprehension.

Captain Ackerman leaned his head against the hooded one resting on his shoulder and sighed. “I’ll explain this once to you dumb fucks, so listen up. Right now there’s at least two vampires out there who are after our asses, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to strike after sundown. If they don’t, then more than likely they’ll regroup with whomever they were taking Eren to and *then* they’ll come after us. The first place they’ll look for us is… anyone have something other than shit in their heads and able to tell me where that will be?”

Marlo felt his throat become dry as he thought about that. “Ah, how many vampires in total are we talking about?” If Mikasa and Captain Ackerman hadn’t been able to take them down….

“I wasn’t able to find that out,” Ymir admitted. “Reiner just said that there would be help waiting for us at some point, and I got the impression that it would be where we’d hand over Eren.” She sounded nervous all of a sudden. “It… they seemed real eager to get him… well, under control by then, so I suspect that we were meeting someone important. Someone *powerful*, and more than just one person at that. They kept saying ‘they’ would break Eren.”

It took Marlo a few seconds to realize that the ferocious growling sound was coming from Mikasa. “You were going to-“

“Hey! I stopped them from-“

“Enough already!” Captain Hange drove her horse between the sight line of the two scary women and shook her head. “What’s past is past, and at least we know what we’re up against. I’m with Levi in that heading straight for the dome is suicide at this point – it’s what they’d most expect from us and would make us easy to track. Let’s just ride out at random for now and then we’ll figure a better plan tonight, when we’ve put enough distance between us and our last known camp.” She glared at Mikasa until the other woman looked away and seemed to allow Jean to try and distract her.

It got quiet after that, as if everyone was worried about setting off another fight. Captain Hange returned to Captain Ackerman’s side and the two of them took to whispering to each other, either about Eren or the day’s ride or what the hell they were going to do to survive out here, Marlo didn’t really know. Mikasa and Jean joined them after a few minutes, with Mikasa reaching out to touch her brother as if to reassure herself that he was still there.

Rico caught up to Marlo and first looked at him, then gave a significant look up at Captain Ackerman – no, at the bit of green hood that could be seen peeking up over his shoulder. Marlo bet that he knew what the Engineer was thinking – that first vampires had nearly tore a dome apart all for one person, and now they would scour through the wilderness for him. *Powerful*, *important* vampires at that. Not for Mikasa, not for Krista and not for Captain Ackerman, but for Eren. It was definitely past time for someone to tell them why exactly that was, before they all got killed.

*******

Armin ran some new tests on the blood sample that Captain Hange had taken from Captain Ackerman before the man had left the dome; he had a few theories about the drug used by the vampires and couldn’t wait until the scientist returned so he could get some feedback from her. Some of the chemical compounds were entirely new to him….

“Captain Hange is going to freak out when she sees this,” he told Annie. “It’s really complex stuff. How long have you guys been working on it? I mean, is it new? I’d think that you’d have used it on Eren by now if it wasn’t, but maybe you had to be certain that you could capture him or risk someone else discovering it.” He stared at the chemical formula on the screen in front of him a little longer before spinning in his chair to look at the large crystal cocoon that seemed to faintly glow. “If it works so well on Levi, what does it do to vampires – or better yet, to Malform? If we can reproduce it, would we have a new weapon on our hands?”

It didn’t bother him that she didn’t respond, it was just nice to have someone nearby in some sort of form and the two guards by the door didn’t count. Everyone in the Corps was so tired and stressed out from the fighting and the deaths, though Commander Smith’s announcement late last night that they should be receiving some replacement members soon had cheered up a lot of people. For himself, Armin hoped that Mikasa returned with Eren in a few days so he could know that his family was safe and whole once more. Also, maybe then Annie would have some incentive to wake up, and they could figure out some sort of peaceful resolution to this whole mess.

He should be doing some work on Eren and Mikasa’s bloodwork, but that would involve looking at Petra’s samples and… well, he didn’t want to think about what had happened to the poor woman right now, not with Annie right there. “They’ve got most of the wall rebuilt, you know,” he told her. “Some Engineers are out there helping with it, so it’ll probably be better than it ever was. And so far no Malform attacks, for which everyone is grateful.” He paused for a minute so he could save his work so far that morning. “Wouldn’t happen to have a clue where all of them have gone, would you? The Engineers have found some in the tunnels, but not as much as they’d expect.”

Annie looked so peaceful while encased in the clear, faintly golden crystal. She had to have been so young, back when she’d been turned into a vampire, approaching the threshold of adulthood when forced into a life of darkness and death. Armin couldn’t imagine having to kill to live, and he knew that for vampires, at least back before the great collapse, that was the only choice left to them since a survivor to a feeding could mean the betrayal of their true nature; Eren and Mikasa chose not to feed on humans not only because of the ‘weaker’ blood, but because of the risk of what they were becoming known even if they took great care in knocking out their victims. Even living on donated or bagged blood ran too much of a risk since that could be traced back to them in the end. As cruel as it sounded, the easiest thing to do was to drain and kill all victims, ensuring no witnesses and no accidental turnings, but it also meant seeing humans as nothing more than livestock. Annie’s will to survive must have been great, for her to turn her back on what she’d been and to endure such loneliness. If only Armin could convince her that it didn’t have to be like that.

He’d just risen out of his chair and approached the crystal when he heard the door to the lab open. Expecting to see Moblit or Commander Smith enter, he was surprised when it was indeed the latter who was among his visitors, but followed by several unfamiliar men dressed in MP uniforms. “Commander?”

Commander Smith gave him an unapologetic smile while circling around Annie’s crystal to stand by his side. “I’m sorry, Armin, but Chairman Fritz has issued an order that we are to surrender the vampire into the MPs’ custody.”

“What?” Commander Smith wanted him to give up Annie? “But – she’s safe here!” Armin rested a protective hand on top of the warm crystal. “Why do they want her?”

“We’re barely at strength to protect ourselves, let alone ensure that nothing will happen to… such an important hostage.” Commander Smith’s deep voice was even yet his blue eyes narrowed slightly as he stared intently at Armin as if trying to convey a warning. “It’ll be best for everyone involved if the vampire is transferred to a more secure location.”

“She’s perfec-“ Armin’s protest was cut off when the commander reached out to grab onto his right forearm and gave it a painful squeeze. “Sir?”

“As always with you scientists, never willing to let a lab specimen go without a fight.” Commander Smith made it sound like a joke, even as he kept his gaze on Armin while he motioned to the MPs standing behind him. “I’m certain that it’ll be all right for you to stop by the MP base to resume your examinations there.”

One of the MPs who were shuffling around the crystal sent the commander an unhappy look. “I’m not sure that-“

“I specifically told Nile that I expected Armin and Hange’s research to remain unaffected by this relocation when I agreed to it,” Commander Smith informed the man in a tone that didn’t brook any argument. “So you can count on seeing Armin in the near future.”

“Uhm… yes, Sir.” The lanky man practically genuflected before assisting his comrades with securing various ropes and levers around the crystal before removing it from the lab with the aid of a small moving bot.

Armin and Commander Smith remained quiet during the entire move process, until the MPs and the two guards at the door were gone. Then Armin turned to face the man he normally respected. “You let her go?”

“Yes, because it’s not worth it to fight with the damn Chairman,” Commander Smith pointed out as he tugged on the hem of his grey coat, a weary look on his face. “We might have some damning information on Minister Zackly, but they timed the request for… for Annie right before the new Corps will arrive at the dome.” His jaw jutted out as his right hand fell onto the hilt of his blades. “Nile didn’t come out and say it explicitly, but I got the impression that the shuttles bringing those much needed people could be blocked from entrance into the dome if I didn’t hand her over.”

They needed the new fighters if they were to protect the dome and the people inside of it, but didn’t Annie deserve some protection, too? How was Armin going to convince her that she could regain some humanity, that she didn’t have to keep on killing if she was just handed back to the people who would use her? “Couldn’t you have done something,” he pleaded. “What about the information I found out about Zackly?”

The commander gave him an almost pitying look. “You’ll be able to visit her at the MP headquarters – Nile didn’t want to give in on that but I pushed back on the fact that he had three vampires in his organization and a couple of other things to make him give in. That way we can make sure she stays there and doesn’t escape.” When all Armin did was stare back at him, Commander Smith shook his head. “Armin… I have a whole dome to look out for – more than a dome, really. Humanity is teetering on the brink here, and I can’t reveal some of the most important information we have just yet – and over a vampire that killed some of our own and tried to tear apart the 104th. I’m sorry.” He gave Armin a pat on the shoulder before walking away.

Armin let him go and stared at the blank spot where Annie’s crystal had been for the last couple of days, and had to wonder if Eren and Mikasa weren’t right in their general opinion in that being around humans only brought pain and confusion. He had to wonder if there might be a point in listening to Annie explain about why vampires hated humans so much, because right now… right now he wasn’t so happy with his own kind.

*******

Reiner moaned as he dropped down onto the dry, musty soil that lined the bottom of the cave. “I’m not sure I ever want to feel the sun again after today.”

Bert collapsed next to him in an exhausted heap, the wounds he’d gained from the fight earlier finally healed. “It feels great to be out of it.” He was quiet for a few seconds as he curled up next to Reiner. “What are we going to do now?”

Thankful to be out of the sun and able to rest, Reiner didn’t want to think about anything just yet except how grateful he was that they both were safe and that they could finally rest. He sighed as he pulled Bert against his chest and buried his face in the soft hair of his lover, for a moment willing to believe that everything was all right, that it was just the two of them left in the world. Unfortunately, he could still smell Eren and that bastard hybrid that had done his best to tear Bert apart….

“We’ll have to meet up with Zeki and the others and admit that we lost Eren,” he said after a minute or so, his fingers clenched tight in Bert’s shirt as he spoke. “At least we have a copy of the key so it wasn’t for nothing, and Eren’s out of the dome.”

“For now.” Bert shifted against him, his breath warm against Reiner’s neck.

“No, he has to know that we’re watching the tunnels now. It’s safer for him to remain outside.”

“Eren’s not always known for doing the sensible thing.”

That was true. Reiner rubbed at Bert’s back and tried to figure out how this plan had gone all wrong – first there had been Annie failing to meet up with them and then Eren being so difficult to bend, and finally that damn captain along with Mikasa tracking them down. It had been such a simple plan – snatch Eren, break him down and then get him to Stockholm, but nothing had gone the way it should….

“We affected him somewhat, we’ll just have to hope that it’ll have some effect when we run into him again,” Reiner said as he held Bert close. “But for now… we’ll see what Zeki wants to do next.”

Bert shivered against him, and Reiner couldn’t blame his lover; they’d done their best to break Eren free of the dome and to bring him to heel, to redeem themselves of the mistake made centuries ago, but Eren had proved to be too stubborn. Now… now the Elders would be involved.

******

Hange glanced out of the corner of her eye and had to bite her lip before a ridiculous grin spread across her face; okay, so they were riding as if Malforms were nipping at their heels through the forest, but *damn* if that wasn’t a picture she so wish she could capture without notice and send back to Erwin, Mike and Moblit right now. Levi and Eren were riding on the same horse with Eren’s head lolling back on Levi’s left shoulder, his right hand latched onto Levi’s left forearm so tightly that faint trails of steam rose where from where his claws were digging in, and Levi actually… *actually* looked content at the moment. Levi, Mr. ‘I am perfectly happy being a sadistic, lonely pain in the ass bastard’ looked happy to have his arm wrapped around another human being – not to mention he wasn’t yelling at other people and threatening vast amounts of physical abuse at the moment. Oh-ho, this was one for the record books.

And then Mikasa had to nudge her horse a little closer and frown. “Are you sure that you’re holding on tightly enough? He looks as if he’s slipping a little there. Maybe we should switch-“

“Back off, you fucking mother hen,” Levi snapped, his slight content smile slipping away to be replaced with a scowl. “He’s fine where he is.”

“He should be with someone he’s known for longer – you’re little more than a fuck-buddy to him at this point!”

“To hell with that! I think you’re just a jealous-“

“Stop fighting,” Eren mumbled as he lifted his mostly healed left hand to his face and rubbed it about. “Everyone’s always fighting.” He opened his blurry eyes and blinked several times. “Where am I?”

“Don’t worry, it’s all right,” Levi murmured as he held Eren against his chest, but for some reason that didn’t seem to calm the poor guy down. When Eren went stiff against Levi and attempted to pull away, Krista’s horse charged forward until it was next to Levi’s and Ymir’s cloaked form reached for Eren.

“Look, Rebel! Rebel!” She ignored Levi’s snarl and grabbed at Eren’s face with her gloved hands. “Mikasa’s here! Mikasa! And Levi, too. That grumpy bastard you like so much! Just… just breathe, okay?” Ymir allowed Mikasa to push her aside and take her place.

While Mikasa and Levi sought to soothe a confused Eren, Hange nudged her horse forward until she was next to Krista’s. “What was that about?”

It was difficult to make out Ymir’s face, what with all the protective covering against the sunlight, but she could see the way Ymir shrugged even with the way the vampire sat behind a defensive Krista. “Those assholes were fucking with Eren’s mind thanks to all the drugs – from what I could tell they were trying to mess up his sense of time and everything, attempting to make him think that it was back before he found out that they were vampires. But one thing that they kept telling him was that he was all right, that they’d take care of him.”

“In other words, they assured him that everything was fine and then screwed him over.”

“Yeah, basically.” Ymir sighed and rested against Krista’s back. “Just keep shoving Mikasa in his face and he should be okay. Mikasa and the grouchy bastard – he kept asking for him, too.”

Hange smiled a little at that revelation. “Somehow, I doubt either of them are going to let him out of their sights anytime soon.”

“Yeah, so do I.”

Well, it was good to know that Eren considered Levi just as important as his sister. Hange turned to tell her friend the good news and found Levi glaring around at everybody staring at them. “Okay, we’re stopping here for a break. A *short* break. That means rations for lunch, *Blouse*, and don’t try to drag Stieger off to the bushes for a quickie, Horse-face.”

“Hey! I wouldn’t- that was totally- why are you such an… I mean….” The poor former MP appeared totally flustered even as his partner sniggered into his sleeve.

Mikasa spared an impressive glare at Levi before she reached out to push back the hood covering her brother’s head far enough to expose his face. “You’re *such* an asshole.”

Eren blinked his dilated eyes several times, probably at the exposure to sunlight. “Huh?”

“Not you,” she assured him in a gentle voice, a sharp contrast to the vicious snarl a moment before. “Get him down while I see about something that’ll help him wake up,” she ordered Levi as she swung to the ground before heading off toward Sasha.

He clicked his tongue a few times as if in objection to the demand but looped the reins around the horn of his saddle before urging Eren to lean forward so he could dismount. As soon as he was on the ground, he gently tugged Eren down toward him until the sleepy hybrid fell into his outstretched arms. “Such a pain in the ass.”

The hood slid back to Eren’s shoulders as he glared up at Levi. “F…fuck you.”

Levi sighed as he half carried Eren over to just a few feet away from where Mikasa was huddled with Jean, Sasha and Connie. “You’re pathetic with that shit in your veins, brat.”

Following behind the two, Hange had to agree – she was used to much more spirited fighting between them. “Come on now, Levi – the poor kid is fighting with a handicap right now.”

He looked over his shoulder to scowl at her with disgust. “The poor ‘kid’ is-“

“Hmm, missed this,” Eren murmured as he nuzzled at Levi’s neck. “Not grouchy enough.”

Again, Hange so wished that she could take a picture or video somehow, because Levi appeared so gobsmacked just then that it was unbelievable. He actually stumbled for a step or two before he recovered and his habitual scowl took over as his default expression. “You little shit – just what are you implying?”

“Wasn’t grouchy enough,” Eren continued to mumble. “Knew something was missing.”

“Aw, I think he’s saying that he knew you weren’t there because no one has as bad an attitude as you do. Isn’t that so romantic?” Hange batted her eyes at Levi. “Here, let me get another sample so I can judge how quickly that stuff runs through his system.” She began to pull out another syringe from one of her pouches while Levi mumbled under his breath about ‘perverted psycho scientists’. To think she almost didn’t know that he cared about her….

Levi sat Eren down on a smoothed out large rock with a bit more force than necessary. “Oi, wake *up*.” He gave Eren’s shoulders a harsh shake.

“Mmm tryin’.” Eren batted at Levi’s hands before slumping forward. Levi’s surly glower lasted all of two seconds before he sighed and began to fuss with the strands of Eren’s tousled hair.

“Is everything going okay here?”

Hange smiled at Rico and Marlo while she took another sample from Eren, unsurprised to find them hovering about; she knew that they had been digging into Eren and Mikasa’s past the last few days, trying to find out more about Eren since no one who really knew about him was being too forthcoming about why exactly he’d been kidnapped. “Nope, we’re just trying to sober Eren up a little – if you want to grab a bite to eat or take a break, I suggest you do it now since we won’t be stopping for long.” She hoped that they’d get the hint.

Unfortunately, neither of them did and backed off, they just took a few steps forward so they could get a closer look at Levi and Eren. “From all the yelling we thought that maybe something was wrong,” Rico explained. She shifted closer and frowned once she got a good look at Eren, who was allowing Levi to comb back the hair falling onto his face. “The hell? He’s just a kid.”

If Rico looked confused, Marlo appeared as if he’d just been punched in the stomach, his eyes going wide and the blood draining from his face. He kept staring back and forth between Eren and Levi several times before he shook his head, and just when he was about to say something, Mikasa barreled her way past him.

“Eren! Eren, I need you to drink this.” She fell on her knees in front of her brother and shoved Levi aside. “Come on, drink this now.” She thrust a thermos full of what smelled to be coffee into Eren’s face.

Jean, Connie and Sasha joined them as well, blocking in Eren as he frowned at the thermos and batted it away after one sniff. “No,” he whined, his face all scrunched up. “It smells like you. Not gonna drink it.”

Mikasa looked at Levi for a moment and motioned at her brother before surging forward, her left arm wrapping around his neck and lower face while her right hand raised the thermos to his mouth. “You *will* drink it because it’ll make you feel better. Come on now.” After a few seconds, Levi joined on and helped to hold him still while Mikasa basically forced the coffee down his mouth.

Eren struggled for a moment, the coffee spilling down the sides of his mouth and onto the green cloak he was still wearing, and then he began to drink. His eyes were glowing and narrowed in obvious anger, but he continued to drink.

“What the hell are we missing here,” Rico demanded to know.

Sasha made a sniffing sound and wrapped her arms around her waist. “I was saving that for later, but Mikasa said that Eren really needed it now. She went and added some of her blood to it so none of us could share it….”

“Fucking Eren and how special he is,” Jean muttered while he stared at the trio; meanwhile Mikasa urged Eren to drink all of the coffee. Hange watched them for a few more seconds and then went off for some answers from the two who were hiding in the shadows with the horses.

She noticed that Krista was still being a bit standoffish with Ymir, but the two were whispering to each other until she came in earshot. Hoping that the blonde girl was giving Ymir enough grief to make up for all the trouble that the vampire had caused them, she smiled at Krista first before she turned toward Ymir. “So, Mikasa gave Eren her blood? Can she do that?”

Ymir made as if to run her gloved hands through her hair before she remembered about the hood of the cloak. “Ah, yeah, she can.” She waved her right hand about for a second as if to do something with it before letting it fall back to her side. “It’s not something we do often, all right? It’s like… well, it’s not quite cannibalism, but it’s not a habit we encourage. The last thing we want is for one of us to get used to feeding off of each other and then for something bad to happen, and then to wake up and realize we’d turned on someone we care about. It’s better to feed off of humans or Malform – off of lesser beings, you understand?” She ignored the way that Krista hissed at her when she said ‘humans’. “Or animals, if nothing else is around.”

Hange smiled to show that she wasn’t bothered by the ‘humans as lesser beings’ comment – from a scientific standpoint, humans were nothing special compared to what Eren, Levi and Mikasa had become. It didn’t mean that she wouldn’t rip out Ymir’s spine if the traitorous bitch tried to bite into her throat. “So why wouldn’t Mikasa just ask one of us for blood now?”

“Because the fastest way to clear that shit out of Eren’s system is with something that’ll boost his healing, and that means potent blood. The most potent blood around right now is that of another vampire or a hybrid, and Mikasa is pretty old on top of that.”

And somehow, Hange doubted that Mikasa would be asking Ymir for anything in regards to Eren. “All right, that makes sense.” She nodded in thanks before turning away. “I suspect that we’re going to be leaving soon.”

“Yeah, yeah, just a stop for Eren, no big surprise there.” For all the sarcasm, Ymir didn’t sound too bitter.

On her way back to join the others, Hange stopped by the light grey horse that had been designated as Eren’s and rustled through the packed saddlebags until she found one of the cloaks that had been prepared for him at the storage station. The garment in hand, she returned to gathering to find that Eren had finished his ‘spiked’ coffee and actually appeared a bit more awake now.

“-bag, where is it?” He was clutching at his chest with his right hand while his left was entangled in the front of Levi’s white shirt, his eyes wide and glowing.

“Relax, Mikasa has it, remember?” Levi held onto Eren’s hand and jerked his chin in Mikasa’s direction, while the woman scrambled to pull out a small leather pouch which hung around her neck. Eren’s shoulders slumped forward when he saw the ‘bag’ and he let out a shaky breath. “Why don’t you let her keep it until you’re a bit better, okay?”

Eren reached out his right hand to touch Mikasa’s chest, above where the bag hung, and slowly nodded. “Okay.” He closed his eyes for a moment and he sighed again. When he opened his eyes, he looked at the people gathered around and frowned. “Where’s Armin? Why are these people here? They shouldn’t be here – I don’t trust them.”

“Oh fuck *you*, you *brat*,” Jean yelled. “This is the thanks we get for coming to save your ass?”

“*You* didn’t save shit, Mikasa and Levi-“

Sasha shouldered her way in front of a red-faced Jean and laughed, the sound a little strained. “Ah, remember me, Eren? It’s Sasha.”

Eren stopped shouting at Jean and blinked a few times as if confused. “Yeah….” He rubbed at his forehead with his right hand, his fingers held stiff to keep his claws out of the way. “Mikasa said we could trust you.”

Her smile growing a little stronger, Sasha motioned toward a still furious Jean and a nervous Connie. “Yes, you can. And Mikasa and I trust Jean and Connie, so that means you can trust them as well, right?” Her smile started to slip the longer that Eren merely stared back at her.

“…I guess so,” he mumbled after looking back and forth between his sister and Sasha. “But there’s still those two.” He pointed a clawed finger at Rico and Marlo – and then yelped when Levi yanked him onto his feet.

“I’m vouching for them, and since you forced me to bring along Ymir on *your* say-so, then you’re just gonna have to suck it up and deal with them, you little shit.” He gave Eren a quick shake as if to cut off any complaint and then yanked off the soiled cloak. “That shit better get out of your system soon before I throttle you.”

Somehow, that threat sounded a little hollow, Hange thought as she handed Levi the clean cloak. “I don’t know, I thought you’d enjoy him being all docile like this.”

Levi scowled at her for a moment before slinging the cloak around a grumbling Eren’s shoulders. “Not when it’s turning him into a paranoid twit.”

“’m notta twit…”

“Yes you are,” Levi argued. “Now get your ass back up on that horse. All of you, on your damn horses!”

Mikasa appeared at Eren’s side and tugged at his left arm. “You can ride with me if you want.”

“No, he rides with whomever he’s fucking.”

“He’s not fucking anyone right now! And that rule is for sleeping, not riding!”

“Yeah, well he’s doing a lot of sleeping in this condition, so it qualifies!”

Dammit, why didn’t Hange have a datapad hidden away right now? Erwin would completely give her that new budget to renovate her lab for this footage, of Levi fighting with Mikasa over Eren like two children bickering over a favorite toy. She chewed on a knuckle of her right hand in an effort not to squeal in amusement – only to have Rico put an end to the fun.

“Are the two of you out of your minds? What part of ‘important, powerful vampires’ after our asses did you not get? Yet you waste time arguing over *this*?”

Levi and Mikasa stopped glaring figurative daggers at each long enough to direct their ire at the Engineer, who didn’t look that impressed by the vitriol. Meanwhile, Eren shook his head and took a step away from the two idiots. “Uhm, maybe I’ll ride with her?”

Hange didn’t know who was more stunned by his decision – Levi, Mikasa or Rico, but Levi recovered first. “Like hell you will.” He lowered his shoulder so he could swoop up Eren and haul the poor ‘kid’ over to his horse, ignoring both Eren’s dazed squawk and then Mikasa’s loud curse.

“You go, Levi! Way to be an alpha male,” Hange cried out to her friend.

“You’re *all* out of your minds,” Rico muttered as she threw her hands up in the air before turning on her heel to stomp away.

“You’re just figuring that out now?” Hange grinned at the woman before going for her own horse – she had the feeling she wanted to be up close for the ongoing battle between Levi and Mikasa.

*******

“So… Mikasa really takes the whole ‘big sister’ thing seriously, doesn’t she,” Connie asked as he stared after the three horses trotting along in the lead.

Jean felt his jaw clench at question; ever since Captain Ackerman and Mikasa had returned with Eren, he’d barely been able to get two words out of… well, she was his girlfriend, wasn’t she? Things hadn’t been perfect, stuck out here in the fucking wild, but Mikasa had opened up to him somewhat, had confided in him about her past and what she really was, only for all of that to stop as soon as her brother had been found. He knew that Eren was important to her, that she cared about him, but damn, why was Jean getting the impression that if Malforms managed to wipe out everyone *but* Mikasa and Eren-

No, that was taking things a bit too far, but he had to admit that he was feeling a bit put out right now with the way that Mikasa was leaning yet again half off of her own horse so she could reach for her brother. “You look all healed now. How’s your head? Do you need more blood?”

There was a gagging sound and a tan hand batted at Mikasa’s. “No more. That was… gah, no more.” Eren still sounded a bit sleepy, but his voice was louder and clearer than it had been earlier.

“Yeah, if he needs more blood than he can drink mine – about time I got some payback with the brat,” Captain Ackerman insisted. “So go fuck off.”

“That’s not much better,” Eren muttered.

“You need to stop harassing him,” Mikasa told the captain. “I don’t see why he wants to be with you when you’re like this!”

“And you need to give him some damn space! He’ll get the damn drugs out of his system faster if he just sleeps them off so leave him be!”

“I’m not-“

Captain Hange broke them up by making a loud clapping sound. “Wow, fifteen whole minutes without fighting this time.” When she had both of the two idiots glaring at her, she gave them a mirthless smile. “Hate to say it, Mikasa, but I think Levi’s right – Eren seems to be recovering faster if given a chance for his body to recuperate, now that you helped out with the blood. So let’s give the poor cutie some peace and quiet, okay? I’ll make sure that Levi doesn’t molest him too much.”

“Fucking Malform needs to eat your shitty liver or something,” Captain Ackerman muttered while he tucked in the green cloak around Eren.

“Hmm, maybe some day.” Captain Hange continued to smile at Mikasa until she nodded with some reluctance and kicked her horse on ahead.

“Wow, to think that I believed Captain Ackerman to be all scary.” Connie shivered in an exaggerated manner while he stared at the bespectacled captain. “She really is crazy, isn’t she?”

“The story is that she was only partially nuts until she met Captain Ackerman, and then dealing with him pushed her over the edge until she was full bonkers.” Sasha sounded perfectly serious as she passed on that bit of news. “Even Commander Smith humors her on certain things, and you’ve seen her fight. It’s like she’s not afraid of the Malforms at all.”

“I think it’s a requirement that you have to be a little bit crazy to join the Freedom Corps,” Connie teased, and laughed when Sasha made a face in his direction. “Oh come on, look at your captains!”

“And what does that say about you, now that you’re one of us?”

“Uhm….” Connie looked so flummoxed for a moment and appealed to Jean for help. His pleading expression changed to concern when he noticed how Jean was brooding. “Ah, come on, what’s wrong?”

“Mikasa’s off by herself now.” He knew that she was one of the strongest fighters they had, almost as good as Captain Ackerman, but why did she have to go off by herself?

Connie looked at him for a little longer and then sighed. “You know, you can go talk to her – in fact, maybe it’s a good idea if you do. She’s probably upset at being shooed away like that and can use a friendly person in her corner right now.”

“I tried doing that earlier – she doesn’t seem to want anyone but Eren right now.” He tried to not sound too bitter about that and knew he failed miserably. Part of him wanted to kick at the horse he was riding and charge off as well… but yeah, he’d probably fall off in about thirty seconds or get kicked off by the damn horse even quicker. Even the damn trees were conspiring against him, being all tall and green and… and damn, it was beautiful out here with the sunlight streaming down through the thick foliage in golden dancing spots. It made him feel like a surly little brat throwing a tantrum while being surrounded by such majesty.

Sasha leaned forward on her horse so she was a little closer to Jean. “I know Mikasa isn’t the most talkative person around, and she was always so protective of Eren even before this… well, before. But I really do think she likes you, too, and it can’t hurt for you to try to approach her now. I think part of the reason she likes you is you *do* approach her, you know?” When he stared at Sasha in confusion, she smiled back. “A lot of the guys in the Corps liked Mikasa, but no one dared get near her to ask her out. I think that’s in part why Eren and the captain are together, too – there was a lot of interest in him as well, but the captain was the only one who really talked to him all the time.”

Jean felt a slight blush heat up his cheeks, which caused him to duck his head. “Did you just compare me to that psycho captain,” he grumbled.

Connie flicked the end of his reins to smack them against Jean’s right thigh. “No, you dumb shit, she just told you to get your butt in gear and go talk to your girlfriend before… I don’t know, Marlo gets up the nerve to cut in on you.”

“Oh, please.” Jean made a rude gesture at his partner as he urged his horse forward. “Worry about your own girl.”

“Not gonna happen!” Connie’s laughter followed him as he cantered past the two captains; Jean looked back to find Captain Ackerman staring blankly at him while Eren slept with his face pressed against the man’s neck. Feeling a little flustered at seeing the two men like that, Jean turned his head forward and focused on finding Mikasa.

She was about two hundred feet ahead of everyone else, her head hanging forward as if she were upset or busy staring at her hands. “Hey, you all right,” he called out as he approached.

“Jean?” She twisted in the saddle to look back at him, her eyes golden and a slight frown on her face. “Is everything all right?”

“I asked you first.”

It took her a moment to answer, as if she hadn’t caught his question in the first place. A slight blush colored her cheeks and she ducked her head again as he came up beside her. “Ah, yes, I’m fine,” she answered in a quiet voice.

“That’s odd, because you don’t look it.” They rode along without speaking for about a minute. “If you’re really upset, you don’t have to talk about it. I just… well, I didn’t like the idea of you riding alone, not if there’s trouble out here.”

“Thank you.” Mikasa was quiet again for another minute. “It’s… it’s so… odd and difficult, you know.” She motioned with her right hand at something in the air, her slender fingers twisting about as if grasping for items he couldn’t see. “It’s always been Eren and me for so long – we were basically kids when we lost… well, when we only had each other. In a way, for me it’s always been Eren, that person I depend upon.”

He didn’t say anything since he was afraid that to interrupt her would stop whatever it was that she was trying to say, so he smiled instead, hoping that it conveyed the encouragement that he felt. She glanced at him and shrugged, her hand still twisting about in the air.

“I know Eren depends on me, too, and I know that what we’ve been through… that’s not something that can be easily changed, easily *broken*. It’s just….” She sighed and rubbed at her face with her right hand before she tugged up the red scarf so she could rub it against her cheek. “I think I’m finding it more difficult than I thought it would be to accept that Eren could find another person to depend upon.”

As much as Jean wanted to rush in and tell her that it was all right, he took a moment to put his thoughts into order before he spoke, to not mess this up. “Mikasa… it’s a big world. It can’t just be the two of you forever.” He put as much empathy as he could into the words.

“I know.” She closed her eyes for a moment before she let the scarf fall back down around her shoulders. “It’s not fair to either of us. Armin was right when he said that Eren… well, he was right.”

“*Both* of you need more people in your life,” Jean insisted. “I’m not a fan of Captain Ackerman – well, he’s an amazing fighter, yeah, I’d love to be able to do half the stuff he does – but he seems to care a hell of a lot for your brother. That’s important. And… and I’m not going anywhere, if you want me here.” He felt as if his heart was about to rip its way out of his chest, it was beating so fast and hard, and if Mikasa looked at him with pity or disgust then he… well, he figured he’d just keep riding on ahead.

For some reason Mikasa didn’t say anything, and then her eyes began to glow and…. “Oh no, no no no,” Jean repeated as she began to cry. “You’re not supposed to cry! That’s bad, right? I’m so sorry!” He nearly fell out of the saddle in the effort to lean over to stop her from crying.

She caught his hands and pushed him back upright, then gave his hands a quick squeeze. “No, it’s fine,” she assured him, her voice thick and low. Then she surprised him by laughing. “It’s fine, except we’re on horses and I bet that short bastard would yell at us if we stopped so I could kiss you properly.” Then she surprised him by leaning forward and brushing their lips together. “So take that for now,” she murmured against his lips.

He desperately wanted that ‘proper’ kiss, but the horses was already drifting apart and he could hear the others catching up to them. “Dammit, can’t we-“

“Oi! Stieger, you need to start scouting out a place where we can rest for the night. It has to be defensible as hell,” Captain Ackerman called out.

“-never mind,” Jean muttered. He wanted to whine in frustration, but the sight of Mikasa smiling at him helped to cheer him up a little.

“At least he’s talking about us camping out sometime tonight,” she whispered before she shifted her horse a little farther away. “How far out should I look,” she asked the short pain in the ass.

“I want us settled in before sunset, just in case,” Captain Ackerman told her. “So scout it out now and get back to us.”

Mikasa nodded in understanding and then pulled her horse to a stop. She handed the reins over to Jean before going over to the nearest tree to climb it. He caught a flash of a smile from her as if a promise, and then she was gone.

He allowed the captains to take the lead again and fell into place with Connie and Sasha.

“Well, someone looks all happy now. See what happens when you follow my brilliant advice?”

Jean scoffed at Connie’s ego and tried to find a comfortable position in the saddle. “This from the guy who thought it would be a great idea if we pranked the ranking squad leaders to show them that we ‘had initiative and guts’? No thanks.”

As Sasha demanded to know how well *that* ‘brilliant’ idea had gone down, Jean looked up at the canopy of trees to judge just how close it was to sundown and when he’d get a chance at that ‘proper kiss’.

*******

Eren rubbed at his face, still feeling a little tired but for the most part aware of the world around him; he could pick up the hint of Bertolt and Reiner clinging to his clothes and his skin that made him want to scratch himself bloody just to get rid of it, could feel the awful hollowness in his bones that spoke of too little feeding and too much healing over too long of a time. He still wanted to sleep, but he suspected that last part was more from how fucked up the last few days had been than from any lingering effects of the drugs – he needed to feed in the near future, and some time to let his mind figure out what had all happened to it.

He had just threaded the fingers of his right hand through his hair when Levi latched onto his right arm and yanked him onto his feet. “What?”

“Come on, we’re checking you out and changing your clothes.” When Eren stared at his… lover? in surprise, Levi clicked his tongue a couple of times and held up the clothes he was holding in his left hand. “We checked you over for tracking devices when we found you, but I’ll feel better after another check and once we get rid of those clothes, just in case.”

“Oh, is *that* what you’re calling it now,” Captain Hange teased. “Whatever makes you feel better, sweetie. Just keep the noise down.”

“Fuck off, you perverted shit for brains!”

Eren ignored the two’s familiar squabbling and remembered back to the feeling of hands along his body when he’d been rescued. Well, that explained that odd memory…. “Okay.”

Levi stopped insulting Captain Hange and gave Eren an odd look, as if he’d been expecting more of an argument from Eren. He huffed once and then led him away from the camp, not too far away to a small clearing where there was a small stream. From the smell of it, Sasha and Connie had already been here to fetch some water for the cooking, and Mikasa before that. Eren waited for Levi to lead him near the running water and then point him to a spot near the sandy bank. “Okay, stay there and strip.”

“Hmm, now that’s romantic as all hell,” Eren joked as he did was he was told. He smiled in the face of Levi’s glare and was slow in taking off the green cloak, which he folded and bent over to set aside. The white shirt and dark blue pants he discarded with less care, eager to be rid of anything that was associated with the trio. “Hey, what happened to Annie,” he asked as he tossed aside the pants.

Levi grunted quietly as he picked up the clothes and examined then quickly, checking the seams for any devices. “After getting her ass kicked by your sister, she somehow encased herself in crystal to keep from being killed or tortured for information.” Once he was done with his inspection, he piled the clothes on top of each other and doused them with flammable oil before setting them on fire. “Okay, now on to you. Wash up first.”

Glancing away from the small fire before it ruined his night vision, Eren took a step away from the burning clothes and gestured at his naked body. “With what?”

The bastard seemed to think of everything; he reached into his pouch to fetch what looked to be a bar of soap, and with the clean clothes was a towel and washcloth. “Hurry up – you stink,” Levi complained, his face its usual bland mask.

Wasn’t that a nice thing to be told? Eren sighed and figured it wasn’t even worth trying to argue about the lack of hot water, so he just stepped into the cold of the stream with another aggrieved sigh. The deepest part of the running water came up to his hip, and it certainly helped to clear out the remaining fogginess in his head when he washed up, especially his hair. Still, he didn’t linger in there any longer than was necessary, and at least Levi was waiting for him with the towel as soon as he stepped out.

If he was rubbed a bit more vigorously than was comfortable, he didn’t complain since it certainly helped to warm him back up. Levi was very thorough in drying him off, and as soon as his skin was dry, the towel was whisked away so he could be patted down and examined once more. “You know, maybe I should be insulted that the first time we’re alone in days and you’re only interested in getting me clean and checking me for bugs,” Eren teased, a little put off at being treated so coldly all of a sudden.

Levi’s fingers dug into Eren’s left hip for a moment and then he continued with the inspection, only to pull away a couple of minutes later. He didn’t say anything the entire time, not until he bent over to pick up the pile of clean clothes that he had brought along which he then shoved into Eren’s chest. “Do you have any fucking idea how difficult it’s been to smell those bastards on you all day? To wonder just what the hell they did to you while all I could do was chase after your ass?” His grey eyes turned golden and glowed brightly in the dimming twilight. “I’m not giving them another fucking chance to take you back,” he gritted out, his voice low and rough as he reached out to grab onto the nape of Eren’s neck and pull him forward until their foreheads touched.

Eren swallowed past a throat gone tight and nodded. “All… all right.” He closed his eyes for a moment and didn’t struggle against Levi’s hold, just content to be near him and to breathe in his scent. What would he have done if Levi hadn’t have come for him? Levi and Mikasa…. “Sorry.”

“Yeah.” Levi brushed his lips against Eren’s and then pushed him away, his eyes still bright. “Get dressed, you little shit.” His voice had become even rougher and his claws had come out. “Tonight’s not a good night for fooling around.”

“Who said anything about that,” Eren scoffed as he struggled to pull on a pair of boxer-briefs, followed by some pants. Levi clicked his tongue and helped him button up the shirt after watching him fumble with a couple of buttons. “Couldn’t have grabbed some jerseys, could you?”

“I didn’t do the packing, you lazy brat.” Levi brushed off a piece of lint only he could see and frowned. “Your boots, jacket and gauntlet are back at the camp.” He looked up at Eren’s face and his frown deepened. “Damn hair is as much of a mess as always.”

Eren made a face as he attempted to comb his fingers through the tangled strands. “Some things never change.” He laughed a little and shrugged. “I’ve gotten used to it over the years.”

“That’s still no excuse.” Levi’s expression turned thoughtful as he reached into a pouch with his right hand while his left first batted Eren’s hand aside and then fussed with the strands. “Something else is required.”

That… really didn’t sound good. Eren laughed nervously, especially when he caught sight of something in the grouchy bastard’s hand as it lifted toward his head. “What is-“ He was caught off guard as Levi grabbed hold of his chin. “What the hell?”

“Hold still,” Levi ordered him while he tucked back Eren’s bangs. Terrified that his hair was about to be cut, Eren held still when he felt something metal brush against his skin, his clawed fingers raising to tear into Levi’s left wrist. Yet what followed was a soft ‘click’ instead of a ‘snick’ and hair falling down around his face, so he froze in shock and allowed Levi to repeat the motion again. The bastard appeared pleased when he studied Eren’s face – no, his *hair* - a moment later and finally let go of his chin.

“What the hell,” Eren repeated again as he felt about his head to try to figure out what Levi had just done. His fingers pressed against something both hard and soft against the side of his head, something holding back his bangs. When he continued to play with it, Levi tugged his hand down. “What did you do?”

There was a very pleased, very *smug* smile on Levi’s face as he held up his right hand to display something long and thin in it – something with the puffy faces of black cats with golden eyes all along its length. A hair barrette. Levi was holding a fucking hair barrette. “Don’t tell me you just put a damn cat hair barrette on me,” Eren pleaded.

“Two of them,” Levi pointed out with evident joy. “I figure we can save the winged ones for special occasions.” He reached up to tweak the hair accessory on the left a little. “They work even better than I thought at keeping those damn bangs of yours out of your eyes.”

The crazy asshole was missing the point. “You put *cat* hair barrettes on me,” Eren repeated. “Wait, did you pick them out?”

“And you turned me into a vampire hybrid, so quit nitpicking,” Levi shot back while he returned the spare barrette into his pouch. The smug smile faded as he stared at Eren. “Actually… Petra picked them out.”

Petra, who wasn’t here when some strangers were to fight at Levi’s back. Eren took one look at the suddenly closed off look on Levi’s face and reached up to touch one of the barrettes in his hair with a weak smile on his face. “Did you hurt your brain thinking this one up?”

The closed off expression on Levi’s face changed into one of barely tolerance as Levi clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes. “Please – the only thing that makes my brain hurt is trying to figure out why I put up with your lame ass.”

Eren couldn’t help it – after the last few days… the last few days which he was very thankful for being a muddle blur in the back of his mind, finding out that not only had Levi come all this way after him but had also carried something so ridiculous along just to… to what? To put him in his place? Carry on their game of petty insults that passed as foreplay? It didn’t make any sense, but what about this fucked up relationship did? Eren’s last thoughts before… well, *before* was that it would be best to just walk away, and now he found himself draping his arms over Levi’s shoulders as he laughed, just so *grateful* that the bastard was there right now. “Fuck, what would I do without you,” he found himself murmuring into Levi’s ear before he stopped to think about what he was saying.

His entire being went rigid once the realization set in, part of him trying to figure out where the words had come from and the rest of him waiting for Levi’s reaction, for either something mocking or derisive to be shot back. At first Levi was still as well, barely even breathing, and then Eren’s chin was grabbed with enough force to leave a bruise.

He was yanked around until Levi could stare into his eyes, and it was only then that he realized that his vision had shifted, that his eyes had to be glowing – and that Levi’s were glowing as well. “Good, because a shitty little brat like you is never going to find out otherwise. Take my eyes off of you for a damn hour and look at what shit you get into,” he muttered before pulling Eren into a kiss that started out ferocious and only got even more intense from there.

Eren was damn grateful that his arms were around Levi’s neck since he needed something to help keep him on his feet, he was quickly becoming dizzy from the rush of desire that slammed into him. He slumped against Levi as the kiss deepened, Levi’s mouth fervent on his own, strong fingers pushing into his hair and….

He pushed away with a shuddering breath as memories became jumbled in his head for a moment, of other mouths on his own, on his neck.

“Eren?”

He tensed at the sound of the voice, but when Levi said his *name*, in such a hesitant manner, he let out another breath and opened his eyes. “Yeah.” He realized that he’d taken a step back and bridged the space between them so he could rest his head on Levi’s firm shoulder, his eyes closed once more as he breathed in the man’s scent. “Yeah.”

Those fingers returned to gently tease at the knots in his hair at the back of his neck. “I ever tell you that you’re one fucked up idiot?” Levi’s deep voice was as gentle as his touch and contained a hint of humor to it, almost enough to mask his concern.

“Hmm, maybe a time or two.” He nuzzled Levi’s neck for a moment. “That feels good.”

Levi didn’t respond back, at least not verbally; he continued to play with Eren’s hair while his free hand carefully, slowly, wound its way around Eren’s waist. “Should… I can get Mikasa, if you want,” he offered after a minute.

“No.” Eren didn’t want his sister just then, especially if Levi let slip that he’d freaked out after them kissing. “Look, I’m… well, I’ll be okay.” When Levi answered that with a rather eloquent snort, he sighed a little and snuggled closer. “I will be after the memories settle a bit more – right now everything is still all jumbled in my head. But the reason I didn’t want you to kill Ymir and I’m letting her tag along is that, from what I *can* remember, she stopped it from getting worse. There was-“ he shook his head to push back the feel of hands and mouths on him and focused on Levi’s scent. “And then she was there and they stopped.”

Levi scrunched his fingers through the back of Eren’s hair and let out a slow breath. “Then I’ll back off of her until she fucks up. But if you-“

Eren cut him off before he could try to be all noble – it would just be too weird. “You’re not *them*. I know that. Just… just need to get all this shit out of my system.”

It was quiet again for about a minute before Levi used his grip on Eren’s hair to force him to look up. “Yeah, well you *will* let me know if it’s not all better once that shit’s all gone.” He gave Eren a piercing look before leaning in to give him a relatively chaste kiss. “Not gonna have you claw up my damn blanket or something when we’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“Oh for the- *one* time. One *fucking* time. Are you going to harp on that forever?”

“Yes.” Levi smirked at him before giving him a hard smack on the ass and letting him go. “Now go fetch me a clean set of clothes and a towel – I’m going to wash off as well.”

“I should drop them in the damn stream or something,” Eren muttered as he stomped off. “Or let the horses chew on them!” He thought he heard Levi chuckling behind him but wasn’t certain, especially since he was barely a few steps from the clearing before he ran into Captain Hange.

“Just making sure the two of you didn’t get too distracted and eaten by some Malforms,” she chirped as she fell in step beside him. “So, all clean now? No trackers?”

Eren almost made a joke about how Levi had failed to perform a cavity search to be a 100% certain, but was afraid that Captain Hange would offer to fill in for him. “Ah, yeah, it looks good.”

“Great. There’s no way of knowing if they injected you with something, but from the little I saw of your healing factor, even if it’s suppressed I doubt it would allow a foreign object to reside in you for too long so we should be good.” Captain Hange fiddled with her glasses a little along the way back to camp.

Didn’t that just make him feel better? He grimaced a little at the thought and excused himself to get Levi’s stuff.

*******

Levi sat on one of the logs that had been dragged around the small camp fire and sipped at the precious cup of tea that he’d brewed himself in celebration of finding Eren; everyone was gathered around in a circle around the fire, the ‘humans’ among them still busy eating while the ‘hybrids’ settled for nursing cups of coffee. Eren was curled up at Levi’s feet, content with coffee while he leaned back against Levi’s legs, his left arm slung across Levi’s lap.

“Mikasa?”

“Hmm?” She stirred from her seat a foot or two away, where she was damn near pressed against Jean’s side. Those two had been cozy all evening long, which was fine with Levi since it meant she was finally giving Eren a bit of space. “Are you all right?” She leaned in Eren’s direction as she spoke.

“Yeah.” Eren flashed her a grin and motioned in her direction – or more toward her chest. “Can I have my bag back?” He rubbed at the nape of his neck as if he felt bothered by the lack of the leather laces around his neck.

“Oh, sure.” She took a moment to figure out the two set of pouches around her own neck and handed the right one over; Levi noticed that everyone else had paused their own private conversations and were paying the siblings close attention, especially Rico and Marlo.

“Thanks.” Eren set his mug aside so he could hang the pouch over his neck and was quick to open it up to inspect the contents; having done so earlier to make sure that there weren’t any tracking devices in the bag, Levi knew what he’d find inside. He had to admit that he’d been impressed to see all those diamonds and would have to talk to Eren later about why the little shit was selling his ass for credits when he had a small fortune in precious stones, but it was the small key that Eren pulled out and frowned down upon after a moment.

“Is something wrong,” Mikasa asked while she shifted away from Jean.

Eren didn’t answer her, instead he held the key up to his nose and sniffed at it, then gave it a quick lick, which caused Levi to grimace in disgust – who know how filthy that thing was? “Ymir, how long did Reiner have the bag,” Eren called out.

Free of the protective clothing that had spared her from the worst of the sun, Ymir was now dressed in a spare uniform of Hange’s and blended in better with everyone. She eyed Eren warily for a moment before she answered. “It was one of the first things they did, taking it from you.”

“Did you see them do anything with it?” Eren stared at her intently, his eyes beginning to glow.

She rubbed at her neck as if expecting a blade to be pressed at it any moment, while Krista shifted about in a protective manner beside her. “No, but I had to sleep at some point, and Reiner made sure that one of them was always awake when I did.” When Eren continued to stare at her with the key clenched in his hand, she motioned toward him. “Why, is something wrong?”

He was quiet for a moment before he nodded, his gaze turning toward Mikasa. “There’s something on the key – something chalky. I think they might have traced or taken an impression of it.”

It was kind of difficult to tell in the flickering light of the fire, but Levi thought that Mikasa might have paled at the news and her eyes began to glow. Meanwhile, the others took to looking about in confusion. “So what’s the big deal about the key,” Rico asked.

Levi exchanged a long look with Hange before he focused his attention on Ymir. “Oi! What exactly did they get out of Eren? Anything about what the key was for?”

She shook her head back and forth while never once taking her gaze off of Eren. “Not that I ever heard – he was too out of things for something like that. No, they were trying to get him to trust them, and the one time he saw the pouch he freaked out on them so I’m willing to bet that if they brought up the key when I wasn’t awake or around, it wouldn’t have gone very well.” She paused for a moment to glance at Krista before she continued. “I will say that they know a bit about… well, they know about his father and the guy’s research. It’s why they want Eren.”

Shit, this was getting worse by the minute. Levi cursed beneath his breath and reached down to grab onto Eren’s left shoulder; he could feel how tense the brat was beneath his hand, as if in a classic fight-or-flight situation. He knew that Eren didn’t react well to mention of Grisha Jaeger under better times, so this had to be really messing with his head.

“All right, I’ll flat out ask – who the *hell* is the kid’s father? It’s about damn time that we get some answers here!” Rico rose to her feet and stood with her hands fisted on her hips. “Especially if this has to do with the vampires!”

Eren made to run his hands through his hair and seemed to remember about the barrettes just in time; he muttered a curse and rubbed at his eyes instead. When he lowered his hands, he glanced first at Mikasa and then tilted his head back to look up at Levi – when neither of them made any formal objection he slumped forward and sighed while he wrapped his arms around his bent knees. “You might not want to know – this is probably going to get really messy.”

“As if things are just fine right now?” Rico gestured all around her. “We’re in the middle of a *forest* right now, running from *vampires*. I’ll admit it that it was worthwhile to find out about the tunnels and get some answers for why my friends are dying, but now I’m finding out that I’m still flailing around in the dark!” She stalked forward to stand in front of Eren and Mikasa. “Please, *tell* me what the hell is going on! Why are you so important that Trost was flooded with Malforms? What’s with that key?”

Eren remained quiet for several breaths, during which the only obvious sounds were the crackling of the fire and the shifting of the horses. Then he leaned back against Levi’s legs as if for support. “The vampires are after me because I’m Grisha Jaeger’s son.” He waited a little bit for the importance of that to sink in, during which Levi began to rub the back of his head, his fingers buried deep in that soft, tangled mess of hair.

Rico stared in confusion at Eren while Jean, Marlo and Connie glanced back and forth at each other, Mikasa stared at the dirt between her feet and Sasha… well, she appeared the same as usual. Hange pushed up her glasses while waiting for the fall-out of the revelation, finger tapping against the wire frame as if in some internal countdown. “What… you can’t mean *the* Grisha Jaeger,” Rico finally asked after about a minute or two.

“Yeah, *the* Grisha Jaeger.” Bitterness shaded Eren’s voice and lent it an unfamiliar depth. He gestured to Mikasa before letting his hand fall back to his side. “I’m his son, she’s his adopted daughter, and for some brilliant reason, he decided that it would be a great idea to inject me with the only version for a cure against Malform attacks. The thing is, we didn’t know it at the time, and found out the hard way when I was attacked a year or two later and turned… well, when I became this. Then I accidentally turned Mikasa a little later.”

Marlo shook his head and pointed a finger in Eren’s direction. “But what, that would make you… how old? That’s….”

“That’s back to the time of the collapse, yeah.” Ymir was helpful as usual, and didn’t sound as if she had much pity for any of the poor former MPs or Rico. “Look, can we skip the whole ‘OMFG, you’re *how* old’ and ‘wow, the great Grisha, really?’ or even ‘what was it like before the world turned to shit?’. Because we *so* don’t have the time right now.” She left Krista’s side to storm her way over toward Eren and Levi, careful to not get too close to Mikasa. “I don’t know what the vampires know about the key other than it’s important, but I *can* tell you why they want Eren so badly.” She rubbed at a reddish mark on the back of her left forearm and gazed intently at Eren. “Reiner told me that while searching for you, they came across some of your father’s research. I get the impression that they already had some of it since apparently, he was working with at least one of them back before he disappeared.”

Hange made a squealing noise and jumped up from her seat. “Wait, you’re telling me that vampires were working on the Malform issue?” She flapped her arms about as if having a seizure.

Ymir didn’t even bother looking in the lunatic’s direction as she nodded. “Yeah, from what Reiner told me they were trying to find a cure and were working undercover, which makes sense – the vampires would want to at least find a way to solve the issue of those they’d infected turning into mutated freaks or get it down to an acceptable level to insure that those they wanted would turn into vampires like themselves.”

“Ooh, harsh,” Connie muttered.

“But true – vampires are only concerned about themselves and their food source,” Ymir pointed out.

“Yourself included,” Levi couldn’t help but ask.

At least Ymir had the grace to appear a bit ashamed just then. “At times… yeah, you could have said that about me. I’m getting better, though.” She glanced over her shoulder at Krista for a moment. “Anyway, back to why this shit matters – the vampires know what Grisha was working on. They know his work. Apparently, he *did* have a cure, so it was that or an earlier version that he injected into Eren. While searching for Eren and Mikasa, they came across more of Grisha’s notes that referenced the cure… and the fact that Eren’s the key for fixing vampires to withstand daylight.”

Levi’s fingers clenched in Eren’s hair for a few seconds, until he felt Eren shift against him. He forced his fingers to relax even as he wanted to latch onto the brat to ensure that he didn’t vanish again. Dammit, this meant that those asshole vampires weren’t going to let Eren go – not without a hell of a fight.

“Did they say what they wanted the pouch for,” he demanded to know.

Ymir shook her head. “No, they just took it from Eren and then did their best to fuck with his head. Reiner did check to make sure the key was there, I know that much… but maybe part of the reason they needed Eren to trust them again was that they needed what he knew about the key. Maybe.”

“And what is it with the key, eh?” Jean sat with his arm around Mikasa, his eyes shadowed but his head held up as he looked at Eren. “Why is it so damn important?”

“Because my father gave it to me – from what we can tell, it should hold his research notes.” Eren tilted his head back to rest it against Levi’s knees. “And right now, it’s buried beneath a shattered dome.” He closed his eyes as if he was suddenly exhausted. “Mikasa and I… by the time we figured out what all was in there… we didn’t have the resources to go dig it out.”

“Yes, but now you’re outside a dome with *friends*,” Hange shouted. When everyone stared at her as if she was crazy – scratch that, as if she’d finally lost that tiny, miniscule bit of sanity that she still had going for her - she stared back as if *they* were the crazy ones and scoffed. “Oh *come* *on*. Are you seriously going to tell me that you’re going to risk the chance of a bunch of sadistic, power-hungry vampires getting their hands on Grisha Jaeger’s research first? You… you damn snot-nosed wussies!”

Mikasa gave the arm that Jean had wrapped around her a squeeze before she shrugged it off and then stood to her feet. “Let me see if I understand this – you want to risk my brother, whom those ‘sadistic, power-hungry vampires’ are currently hunting, along with the rest of us, to go cavorting across the wilderness to another country – excuse me, over a thousand kilometers or so, and then burrow beneath a shattered dome just so you can find some new research?” Her eyes were blazing now, and her fangs were out in force.

However, Hange didn’t back down at all, she merely adjusted her glasses and dusted off her hands. “Those vampires are going to chase your brother down wherever he goes, so him being on the move and headed toward the last place they’d expect seems wise. Also, if we don’t take a chance getting that information, do you really want to risk it falling into the wrong hands? It was one thing to leave it alone where it was doing no harm if not any good, but you said yourself that you refused to allow it to be used to benefit only a few. What if those few are vampires?”

Mikasa opened her mouth a time or two as if to respond, and finally resorted to a fierce snarl before she whirled away to go stand by Eren. “Do you agree with her?”

He was quiet for a moment before he shifted away from Levi with some reluctance and slowly stood to his feet. “What she said made some sense – obviously Reiner or Bertolt copied the key for a reason, and if they don’t have me then they might attempt to locate the box themselves.” He glanced down at the key that he held in his palm. “At least by now the engraving is all worn off, so they don’t have that to help them.” He closed his fingers around it and looked back up. “But we’ll do it ourselves, we don’t need to-“

“*Bullshit*.” Levi was on his feet within seconds and stomping toward the brat. “Don’t even *think* that you’ll head off on your own – you’ll end up kidnapped again in a day, tops, without someone looking after your fool ass.”

Eren bristled at the reprimand while Mikasa took to hissing, and Hange laughed while she rushed forward. “Yes! You know I’m not letting you go anywhere without me! This is like a dream come true!”

Jean was the next one to step forward, a little tentative first and then he was right at Mikasa’s side. “I guess it’ll be impressive as hell, returning to the domes with a cure. Can’t let some brat show me up, now can I?” He might talk big, but the smile he gave Mikasa was nervous until she smiled back and hugged his left arm.

Meanwhile, Eren took to frowning while he looked at the former MP. “Wait, why is he-“

“Count us in, too!” Sasha and Connie jumped forward together. “I’m not ready to go back to agro-grown food just yet!”

“And there’s no way I’m letting Jean hog all the glory!”

Marlo inched closer to the fire as if he was waiting to be yelled at for something. “Uhm, I’d like to join, too.” He waved his right hand a little. “This sounds really important – more important than what’s going on at the domes.”

Great, so it looked as if Levi was stuck with babysitting these damn asswipes for the foreseeable future. He glared at Hange for dragging him into this mess before looking at the remaining three members of the party, and wasn’t surprised to find Krista at Ymir’s side. The vampire didn’t look too happy all of a sudden, but Krista’s expression was resolved. “We’re in this, too. You can count on us, Sir,” she told Levi. “*Both* of us.”

Levi nodded at Krista before he turned toward Ymir. She grimaced and rubbed at her left arm again. “I’m gonna need some better gear if I’m gonna keep up with you guys during the daylight.”

“Hange will help you out for now, and we should be able to restock soon at a supply station – there’s always some solar radiation gear there just in case.” It wouldn’t be ideal, but it would help cover the bits that weren’t protected by the cloak and boots.

“Great.” Ymir didn’t sound too happy about that, but one look from Krista had her falling silent. Levi still wasn’t too sure about having the vampire tag along after what she’d done to Eren, but she had helped protect him from those assholes and Krista seemed determined to keep the bitch in line, so….

That left one more person. Rico was mumbling to herself while she glanced at the group and seemed to notice his attention. She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before finally nodding. “I did say that I wanted answers, didn’t I?” She sounded a bit rueful now, her smile a bit lopsided as well. “If we do this, it’ll hurt those bastards, won’t it?”

“Yeah, and maybe put an end to the Malform attacks – at least save the humans they hurt.”

Her nod was more certain this time. “Then it’ll be worth it.” She snuck a quick look at Eren. “Jaeger’s kid, huh? He sure doesn’t look it.”

“Yes, so keep any comments about robbing the cradle to yourself,” Levi snapped as he rejoined his… fuck, lover? Yeah, safest to just think of Eren as his lover, he supposed, since they were having sex. Better be having sex again sometime soon, whenever they had a quiet moment away from these morons and Eren… yeah, not thinking about that.

Eren glanced at him and frowned. “Who’s robbing the cradle?”

“You are, technically, and I think Mikasa, too.” He nudged Eren in the side and pointed at the bi- at the woman.

Eren shuddered a little and closed his eyes. “Not going to think about that – if I stay out of her relationship, maybe she’ll stay out of mine.”

Hmm, someone sure was hopeful, wasn’t he. “So do you think the vampires have any clue where to start looking for your father’s stuff?”

“They probably have an idea of the general area.” Eren placed his hand over where the pouch hung around his neck. “There’s the Shiganshina dome, and the Berin one as well. Both of those are over what were major cities back in… well, back in the pre-collapse day. They could go for either of those, since we lived in the city beneath the Shiganshina dome for a short while before the collapse, but my father also worked a lot around Berin, as well as in the pre-Londonium dome area. I bet they’ll focus in areas he would frequent pre-collapse.”

Hange had drifted closer during the discussion. “You said it’s the Shiganshina dome, right?”

“Yeah.” Eren appeared so tired just then, the light fading from his golden eyes until they appeared so pale. “A major Malform attack took it out not long after it was built – there were always nests of them about in that area, so I don’t know why they even bothered with a dome in the first place. Guess people didn’t want to give up on the history or something.” He yawned just then, his mouth opening wide even as he attempted to stifle it.

Hange shot Levi an amused glance while she began to make shooing waves of her hands. “Aww, it looks like someone is a bit tired – it’s been a long day for you, hasn’t it?”

“I really need some blood soon – some Malform blood,” Eren reiterated. “It’s been too long since I fed properly.”

“Hmm, and being chopped up and all that hasn’t helped, I’m sure.” That was Hange for you, no sense of tact at all. “Get some rest – I’m sure we’ll be charging off on the horses bright and early tomorrow.” When Eren turned toward the stacked pile of packs, Hange shoved Levi as well. “That means you, too. You’re not on watch until the last shift, so go curl up with your cutie.”

“Hange, I fucking swear-“

“Hmm, nope, no swearing, just go make sure he sleeps okay.” She dropped her smile to order him about, her expression perfectly serious. “He’ll probably rest easier that way,” she whispered.

Grumbling beneath his breath about how everyone was such a damn busybody, Levi gave in with ill grace and went to make sure that the damn brat grabbed the right pack. At least this way they had two blankets to use for their ‘bed’, gaining a little extra padding on the hard ground.

Since they might need to fight at some point in the night, they just stripped off their belts, gauntlets, boots and jacket, making certain to leave the gauntlets and boots close to hand, and had their weapon belts closest. They did switch their shirts for t-shirts for comfort sake and then were ready for bed – Levi swore that Eren was out as soon as he stretched out on the blanket and didn’t make a sound as Levi hugged him closer. Not quite tired yet, Levi held Eren against him and listened to the sounds around him, the noises of the forest, the shifting of the horses and the soft murmurs of the others as they talked while around the fire. It all blended together after a while, with Eren’s even breathing being the most distinguishable sound, and it was all comforting in a way. Certain that things were all right in his world for the time being, Levi was finally able to let go of the stress of the day and allow sleep to claim him.

*******

Eren rubbed at his eyes before glancing around him; even though he pretty much felt like his old self, he rode in front of Levi again since he’d slept through most of the night instead of only a couple of hours. Mikasa and Levi had agreed that until he managed to feed that he should continue to be ‘babysat’, and the sad thing was that Eren couldn’t work up the energy to argue. So yeah, okay, it actually felt nice to just lean back against Levi’s warmth and solidness and zone out a bit while everyone else bitched around him.

“It’ll take us over a week to reach Shiganshina, *if* everything goes our way. Won’t the Corps get worried about us,” Mikasa argued. “I know Armin will fret.”

“Not all of us are so lucky to have people to be so concerned about us.” Levi sounded more sarcastic than upset.

“Now, now, Levi, you know Erwin will be all bothered about what mayhem we’ll be up to without his guidance,” Captain Hange pointed out. “He gets all twitchy if he’s not there to say ‘no’.”

“Mikasa has a point.” Rico didn’t sound too happy just then. “We should let someone know what’s going on and what we’re doing.”

Levi let out such a heavy sigh that Eren could feel it against his back and tilted his head so he could look up at his lover, who appeared distinctly disgruntled just then. “Uhm, I’m not sure how you want us to contact Trost since the vampires monitor most communication channels,” he admitted.

“Yeah, Rebel’s also right. Those pricks made sure to wipe out all of the satellites so they could control the communication between and in the domes. Any signals going out, they’ll notice.” Ymir’s voice was muffled by the fabric covering her face. “It’s why they restrict the comm channels with the bullshit story about ‘frequencies affecting the environment’.”

A bit surprised that she was being so free with the information, Eren watched as expressions of first surprise and then anger and indignation spread across his companions’ faces. Behind him, he could feel Levi tense up for several seconds. “Are they monitoring shortwave radio?”

“Eh?” Ymir sounded confused for a moment. “You mean someone actually remembers that stuff?” She laughed for a couple of seconds and then fell silent. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, someone in the Corps knew about it and we keep the gear in all of our supply stations as well as headquarters,” Captain Hange explained. “We believe in having a way of communicating that’s off the grid, so to speak, but it’s only to be used in case of emergency.” She pushed back her glasses and stared at Ymir as if she was some sort of specimen. “Can the vampires track it?”

Ymir cursed beneath her breath in what sounded to be Spanish for a moment before speaking out loud. “Fuck, I didn’t even know anyone remembered that stuff anymore, so I’ve no clue. If you’re on an obscure bandwidth and send out a short message, then I’m willing to bet they’ll miss it – I know Reiner and Bertolt weren’t using it to contact the others and if they would have thought of it, then it would be a great way to communicate.”

Eren started when he felt a jab to his left side. “Oi, brat, what do you think,” Levi breathed into his ear.

“First off, leave my damn kidney alone,” he growled as he batted Levi’s hand aside. “Second, I can’t remember the last time the damn system was used so I think it’s worth the risk. You guys really do use it?” He twisted around enough to glance back at Levi.

Levi frowned at him for a few seconds before nodding. “Once or twice from what I’ve heard. We can send a general message at the next station we come across, nothing specific but enough to let Erwin know that we won’t be heading home right away.”

“Maybe try to get some help to figure out which dome will be the safest for us to head to after we hit up Shiganshina,” Rico added as she flicked her reins against the side of her saddle. “It won’t do us any good if we rescue whatever Grisha Jaeger hid away and can’t get it back to where it’s needed.”

Connie groaned as he leaned in a dramatic manner against his horse’s neck. “Gee, someone sure as hell is optimistic about our future. Why don’t you tell us about how we can’t save mankind if we end up as Malform dinner? Or that we can’t reach Shiganshina if we all fall off our horses and break our necks?”

“Ooh, I know! We can’t find a cure if we stumble around in the dark and impale ourselves on branches,” Sasha added with particular vigor. “Or if we end up pounded into the ground by a bunch of wild pigs!”

“What about if we get struck by lightning one night,” Jean added. “It can’t be good to be riding around with metal blades if it starts to rain.”

To Eren’s surprise, Mikasa joined in on the ‘what ifs’ while Rico’s eyes narrowed in obvious annoyance and Marlo’s face grew red as he attempted to stifle his laughter. “Hmm, you’re lucky we haven’t really run into any of the bigger cats yet. Or wolves. You just don’t realize how tasty you humans are, do you?”

“You do know that your sister is psychotic, right?,” Levi murmured in Eren’s left ear.

“I like to think of her as unique, and you really shouldn’t be throwing any stones.”

“Yeah, well she just described the majority of our squad as ‘tasty’.”

Eren sighed as he rested his head against Levi’s shoulder. “And Captain Hange’s now explaining why the human’s omnivore diet makes them so ‘tasty’.” He stared at the bespectacled captain for a moment before shaking his head. “Got any more of those drugs?” Maybe he could spend most of this ‘road trip’ unconscious….

Levi seemed to read his thoughts just then. “As if, you little shit. If I have to put up with all of them, so do you.” He nipped at Eren’s ear as if to reinforce his point. For once he was mindful of his sharper teeth – that or had finally gotten used to them – so Eren shivered in response and shifted about in the saddle as warmth flooded through his body. Unfortunately, that just pressed his ass even firmer back against Levi’s crotch… and yeah, suddenly he hated the fact that he was riding along with his sister and a bunch of people he barely knew.

“I… I was all for us going on alone,” Eren reminded the idiot as he took a deep breath and thought about how Mikasa was just a few feet away in order to get his body back under control. Behind him, Levi wrapped his arm around Eren’s hips as if to keep him from moving any more and muttered about ‘damn brats’ while breathing a bit heavy.

There was some more teasing and joking going on as they rode through the forest, especially when Marlo’s horse got spooked by a knee-high cat that darted out of the underbrush and nearly unseated the kid, but Eren and Levi didn’t participate in it. Levi even snapped at Captain Hange when she asked him a question, but she merely laughed it off and said that obviously the lack of cleaning bots were beginning to get to him.

About an hour later they finally stopped for a mid-day break, after putting up with some whining from Sasha about how she’d pass out if she didn’t get something to eat soon. Eren expected Levi to yell at the girl or something, and was surprised when the normally grouchy bastard actually signaled everyone to stop once they reached a spot with running water.

“All right, since you’re whining so much about it, you and Connie are in charge of prepping our meal,” he told Sasha while he dismounted from the horse. “Rico, Marlo and Jean, tend to the horses while Mikasa and Hange check our maps and make sure we’re still on course and can reach a decent place to stop for the night.” When Krista held up her hand, Levi gave her a flat stare and shook his head. “Your job is still the same as yesterday – make sure your girlfriend doesn’t fuck anything up.”

Eren felt a little bad for Krista – it was clear that she hadn’t any clue what the hell Ymir was going to do and that she was still pissed at Ymir for helping the vampires, but he also knew that even though Krista hadn’t completely forgiven her that she still loved Ymir. Hell, *he* hadn’t really forgiven Ymir, he just didn’t think she deserved to be killed… well, not yet anyway. So he offered Krista a reassuring smile to help take the sting out of Levi’s gruff words before turning to face the tactless bastard. “And what are we doing?” He barely got the words out before a water flask was tossed at his face, which he just managed to catch in time.

“We’re restocking water bottles, so get your ass in gear. We’re headed upstream,” Levi called out to the camp as he tossed a few more flasks Eren’s way and picked up the rest. “Don’t fuck up everything while we’re gone.”

“Have fun,” Captain Hange called out in a sing-song voice while reaching out to prevent Mikasa from following them. Eren waved his sister off before going after Levi with his armful of empty flasks.

They seemed to head a good deal farther upstream than just trying to get to a clean supply of water merited, and just when Eren was about to ask how far Levi intended to go, the man let his collection of flasks fall to the ground before whirling around to latch onto Eren’s upper arms. Startled by the sudden movement, Eren dropped his collection of flasks as well, and barely got part of Levi’s name out before he was silenced by one hell of an intent kiss.

Well, okay then, this he didn’t mind. He kissed Levi back, his right hand grasping at that hair he just loved to see all mussed up and his left pressed against the small of Levi’s back to pull him closer. As he nipped at the infuriating bastard’s lip, he realized that while Levi was kissing him, he seemed to be holding back on everything else. Of all the….

“It’s fine,” he told the idiot as he rocked his hips forward, his voice as raw as his nerves felt just then. “*I’m* fine, or else the last hour on that damn horse wouldn’t have been so painful. So either *do* something or I will fucking drown you in eight inches of water.” That wasn’t to say that he was crazy about the idea of just anyone laying hands on him, but… this was Levi. And right now, he wanted *Levi*.

Levi just looked at him, his grey eyes narrowed slightly and his lips pressed in a thin line, and then gold bled into the grey until they were glowing. “I’d like to see you try, you little shit. I would fucking *own* your punk ass.” While he spoke, he began to step forward, until he backed Eren up against one of the trees that lined the bank of the running stream.

“Funny, owning my ass is exactly what I want you to do,” Eren breathed as he lightly scratched his claws along the back of Levi’s neck, just below the shaved hairline. Then he ran the pads of his fingers along the soft, neatly trimmed hair and smiled when Levi shivered. “So get to it, you controlling asshole.”

“Little shit,” Levi murmured before he began to nibble on Eren’s neck, which prompted a moan of delight from Eren.

Oh, how he’d missed this – the taunts, the feel of Levi’s strong hands on his body, the way Levi pressed against him so hard and demanding…. Eren closed his eyes and tilted back his neck as his left hand fumbled between them to undo Levi’s belt buckles. “Fuck, but I want your cock right now.”

He could feel Levi’s deep groan against his skin as well as hear it, and his ass was given a hard squeeze as he was pulled even closer against Levi. “Don’t… fucking tempt me. Not now, though.”

This traveling in a group was going to be hell on their sex life – Eren would have to sweet talk his sister into covering for them during the night or something, sometime close to dawn. Groaning at the thought of how complicated things had become when he’d finally stumbled onto a relationship and just wanted regular sex, dammit, Eren refocused on ridding Levi of his belts and then undoing both of their pants so they could at least do something before they creamed their pants.

Moaning at the feel of Levi’s hand finally sliding into his pants to cup his cock, he had to take a couple of deep breaths to calm down so he lasted more than a few seconds; it didn’t help that Levi continued to lick and nip at his neck the entire time, even biting down hard every now and then. Eren stuttered out the bastard’s name when he felt Levi’s hard cock brush against his own and wrapped his hand and them, and even managed a weak laugh when he felt something soft be draped on top.

Levi’s hand joined his own and they moved up and down, the friction feeling so fucking wonderful after being frustrated for so long. He could breathe in Levi’s scent, could feel Levi’s heat and Levi’s solid presence all around him and Levi’s awful teasing mouth just below his left ear. His fingers digging into the bastard’s hips to keep him from pulling away, to yank him even closer, Eren kept his eyes closed so that it seemed as if his entire world was comprised of only the pleasure coiling within him and the man who tightened it with every stroke, every touch, every lick and bite. He forced away everything else with a desperate ruthlessness and gave in to that pleasure until the tension finally snapped, shattering him as he cried out Levi’s name while he came.

Holding on to his lover as he slumped back against the tree, he felt Levi’s hips jerk erratically and a sharp scrape along his neck before Levi came as well with a rough, choked-off growl. Levi buried his face in the crook of Eren’s neck and rested against him for what felt to be a good minute or two afterward, while Eren rubbed his left hand along Levi’s undercut and tried to catch his breath.

“Ugh, what I wouldn’t do for a shower,” the bastard had to grumble as he slowly pushed away.

“Please, we’ll be out here for a couple of weeks – try doing without one for *years*, you wimpy bastard.” Eren rolled his eyes at the pampered man who was busy frowning as he wiped himself clean with a handkerchief. He had to wait through Levi’s glare – so not impressed with them at this point – and be tossed another cloth so he could clean himself up before tucking himself back into his pants. Hmm, maybe at some point he should look to see what pouches were tucked away in his saddlebags….

“Remind me again why I get anywhere near your filthy ass.” Levi shivered in what was probably disgust as he went to the stream to rinse off the ‘dirty’ cloth.

Eren could feel a headache coming on, which wasn’t the best way to kill an after-sex buzz. “Oh come *on*, it’s not like I haven’t taken *thousands*, if not hundred of thousands of showers since then!” He went to run his fingers through his hair and yelped when he hit a damn barrette. “I swear, should have looked for a damn Chairman when Armin said I needed a relationship, not a potty-mouthed, clean-freak, sadistic, domineering asshole!” He gave Levi the finger before stomping over to pick up the flasks that needed to be refilled.

“Yeah, well too bad, you bratty little shit. I say you got exactly what you deserve - *I’m* the one who’s clearly suffering here. Probably will spend the next few centuries constantly having to save your ass from being kidnapped since you don’t have the common sense of a fucking flea - I mean, who the hell drags along the person who kidnaps them? Hopeless, utterly hopeless,” Levi muttered as he picked up the flasks as well.

“Hey! You said yourself that Ymir can be helpful!” Eren glared at the bastard before he picked a spot upstream to begin filling the flasks. “And I’m not hopeless!”

“Yes you are – now I know why Mikasa’s such a fucking mother hen around you. It’s amazing that you know how to shit by yourself.” Levi clicked his tongue and flicked water in Eren’s direction.

“Least I’m not about to go catatonic if I get a bit of mud on me!” Eren glared as he splashed water at Levi in retaliation. “Do you cry if you run out of soap?”

“Very funny.” Levi gave up on filling the water flasks so he could use both hands to splash water at Eren. “You like cold water so much, how about this?”

“Bastard,” Eren swore as he splashed back as well. Yet he couldn’t help but laugh as he thought about how here he was, in the middle of the wilderness with the sun shining down on him and Levi beside him as they splashed water at each other. He thought he caught a glimpse of a smile on the bastard’s face right before a handful of water hit his eyes, and then he redoubled his efforts to drown the son of a bitch. Both of them were soaked within minutes, and he was about to grab hold of Levi’s arm to drag him into the stream when he heard a loud moan of what sounded to be pain.

“Why oh *why* didn’t Mikasa let me bring my datapad? I could get *two* new labs with this footage!”

Eren turned to find Captain Hange clutching a tree about twenty feet away while she stared at them in what looked to be shock. Beside him, Levi sighed as he combed back the wet hair falling onto his face before reaching for the still empty water flasks. “What do you want, Shitty Glasses?”

“Well, I thought for sure that I’d find you and your cutie doing something naughty, but never *this*. Lunch is ready, if you’re interested.” She flashed them a grin before she sauntered away. “I better warn everyone that you two will be showing up in wet clothes. Hmm, gotta love these uniforms.”

Levi pressed the fingers of his right hand to the bridge of his nose and took two deep breaths. “One day I will kill her. One day.”

“Uhm, okay.” Eren wrung out the wet ends of his hair and grabbed at his abandoned flasks, too. “You’re sure she’ll stay dead though, right? I mean, lots of weird stuff in her lab and all.”

Levi seemed to consider that for a moment, then his frown became even more pronounced. “I don’t know who’s worse, you or her.”

Eren could live with that, considering that the annoying bastard had just called him ‘hopeless’.

*******

Mikasa set her saddlebags down and then went over to where Jean was waiting. “Give me a few minutes to check up on Eren, okay?”

He smiled at her before leaning down for a quick kiss. “Connie promised to cover for us for a little bit,” he whispered. “So….”

“He’s my brother,” she reminded him.

Jean flushed a little and then managed a weak smile. “Yeah, I know. I just… I’ll be with Connie and Sasha, okay? Take your time.” He leaned in to give her a hug, his arms lingering around her for a few seconds. “Look, I’m not good at understanding this whole sibling thing, so try to give me a little slack. It’s like friends only a lot more important, right?”

She laughed a little as she pushed him away. “A lot, *lot* more important.” She brushed her fingers against his lips before stepping back. “But Eren… I think Eren and I are working on adding a couple of people to our circle.”

“That makes me happy to know.” Jean gave her a wide smirk before he walked away, a cocky hitch in his step that made Mikasa stifle a laugh. She felt a sense of lightness that she hadn’t experienced in years, one that took away a sense of *years*.

Once Jean had disappeared from view, she went in search of Eren who of course could be found in the company of the short bastard. She stood in front of the couple and cleared her throat until Eren sighed and shrugged off the bastard’s arm that was draped across his shoulders. “I’ll be back soon, okay?”

The bastard captain glared up at Mikasa before glancing back at Eren. “Don’t forget to ask.”

A slight blush spread across Eren’s cheeks as he rose to his feet. “Yeah, all right.” He stumbled forward to clutch at Mikasa’s arm. “Let’s go somewhere private, okay?”

She swallowed a snarl since she could still smell a hint of sex and that short bastard clinging to her brother, but was quiet until they were far enough away from the camp so they could talk without being overheard. “So, you and the Short Bastard?”

Eren stared at her for a few seconds before sighing out loud. “Uhm, yeah. I think we’re good now.” He tugged at the bit of bangs that were tucked behind some weird barrettes that he suddenly had started wearing *after* he’d returned. She had her suspicions on where those barrettes had come from but didn’t want to start a fight over them when Eren was so tired.

“And are you happy about that,” Mikasa pushed, not ready to let this matter rest if Eren was merely going with this because he was too tired to fight with the bastard captain or if it was an effect of the drugs.

Her brother stared at her for a few seconds before leaning forward to enfold her in a hug. “Mikasa… look, he’s an asshole and all bossy and that… but he’s good.” Eren laughed a little after saying that. “Maybe I’m more fucked up than I thought if I’m admitting that.”

She shifted back a little in his arms and had to smile, even though it hurt a little. “No… I think I finally know where you’re coming from in regards to the bastard.” After seeing how much Ackerman had pushed to rescue Eren, how he had driven everyone on until they had caught up to Reiner and Bertolt… yeah, she knew that the bastard was just as obsessed with keeping her brother safe as she was so that was one thing she knew he would do well. She still would struggle to let go of Eren a little bit, but Captain Ackerman had proven himself enough that she knew that she really should focus some of her attention on her own life for once.

Eren laughed again and bridged the gap between them to rest his forehead against his. “Well, glad one of us does.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “So tell me that you’re not having as much of a problem with your love life even if you’re dating a horse.”

That comment caused her to laugh and punch him lightly in the ribs. “*Jean* followed me out into the wild, I’ll have you know. He gave up the MP for me.” She fell silent for a moment. “The truth about me didn’t scare him away,” she admitted in a quiet voice.

Her brother didn’t say anything for a moment, which caused her to worry. Then he opened those lovely eyes of his, so golden and bright, and smiled; she missed the aquamarine color at times, but the gold was so *warm* that she loved it even more. “Then I guess I better get used to him, no?”

As much as she loved Eren for all that he had done for her, for saving her so many years ago, for taking her in when she had lost everything, for giving her a new life and always being by her side… she loved him even more right now. He always seemed to look at what she needed the most and then just accepted it, would be there for her without question. “Yeah, I guess you better.”

He grimaced a little as he pulled away. “I could have had a Chairman and you… well, you could have had two!” He shook his head as if in dismay. “Hell, you could have been a Chairman.”

“Hmm, I’ll settle for a former MP who likes to make me happy,” she told him as she caught his right hand. “You’re the one who went for an asshole.”

“Don’t remind me.” He hung his head forward a little as he rubbed at his face. “So… do you think maybe you can cover for me and the asshole during the last watch?” She swore that a blush covered his cheeks as he asked.

“Hmm… only if you return the favor tomorrow.”

“Gah.” Eren’s left hand floundered around a little. “This is weird, the two of us being in a relationship at the same time.”

“It does seem to be a first.” Mikasa smiled at him a little and then grew serious. “On a serious note, it’s going to be difficult, once we reach Shiganshina. If the others figure out where we’re going, they’ll do their best to either stop us or to steal the research from us once we retrieve it, and they’ll take you alive.”

“I know.” Eren clutched at the bag hidden beneath his white shirt. “They may try to use you and Levi against me now. Everyone else may be expendable.”

She paused for a moment before she spoke again. “The others… as humans they’re too weak. If it comes to it… you might consider that some of them might be more use to us if they’re stronger.” She’d thought about it during the race to find Eren, about Captain Hange’s statement that she’d be willing to be turned. She… she wasn’t sure how much more she could lose now….

A dark look crossed Eren’s face before he looked away. “I’m not turning anyone against their will – it’s what the others would do. And I’m not doing the others’ work for them.” He took a few steps away from Mikasa’s side.

“Eren… I won’t lose you to them,” she called out as she reached toward her brother. Ymir’s admission that Eren could change the vampires to survive in daylight had shaken her deeply, enough that she had to worry about what it would take to keep him safe. “I *won’t* lose you.” He was the most important thing to her. But they were slowly accepting others as important to them, too.

He glanced back over his shoulder at her, his eyes glowing bright in the darkness and his smile a grim line. “I know.” That was all he said before he vanished into the darkness with an ease that frightened her.

Mikasa fumbled after him, lost for a moment despite her ability to see in the dark, and when she reached the camp she found Eren sitting next to Captain Ackerman as if nothing had happened. Eren gave her a smile even as he sat at the short bastard’s side, while the captain had an arm around his waist and assessing eyes for Mikasa when she met his grey gaze.

Captain Hange was on Eren’s left side, and she also had a cool gaze for Mikasa before she resumed tapping away at the datapad in her grip. Beside her was Krista and Ymir, and Ymir had a mocking smile on her face as if she knew something that Mikasa didn’t, which made Mikasa itch to wipe the smug expression off of the traitor’s face.

Feeling a bit left out, Mikasa went to sit by Jean’s side, where he made space for her with obvious enjoyment. While everyone talked about the day’s ride and what waited for them in the upcoming journey, Mikasa stared across the fire at her brother and tried to figure out just what had changed between them.

*******

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so as you may have seen, things are wrapped up but not *exactly* wrapped up. The plot has hit a nice resting point but there's still a good bit that needs to be resolved. However, I figured this was a nice place to stop for the time being - to be honest, the fic has gone on a lot longer than I had planned (300K, that's like the length of two novels!). For now, I have a long overdue fic in an older fandom that I owe some fans that I need to get out that I'll work on for a little bit and then I'll come back to wrap this one up. Until then, I'm going to try to post some snippets/prompts on my Tumblr page, both SnK fandom among others (I've a Young Avengers fic I keep circling around...) - https://www.tumblr.com/blog/nekojitachan


End file.
